Yummy Brown Sugar Butter with Bacon Recipe for Dinner Rolls

This delicious Brown Sugar Butter with Bacon recipe is a must for your Thanksgiving dinner rolls and beyond! It’s the perfect combination of sweet, salty, and savory. If you have a sweet tooth, you need to make compound butter!

Yup, Brown Sugar Bacon Butter. Remember that healthy smoothie recipe I posted about? Yeah, I still drink it.  

And I still really like it. But sometimes I have to pump my body full of total amazingness, which is what this bacon butter is.

It’s become a holiday tradition that people ask for. And I can’t wait to shovel it in my mouth. 

You Need to Make Brown Sugar Bacon Compound Butter

A friend shared this recipe with me years ago. And I was hooked. So when Thanksgiving rolled around, I decided I was going to make it.

You see, I’m usually told what to bring (green bean casserole) and there is no deviation.

Bringing this bacon compound butter could be seen as stepping out of line (you know how family functions can be).

But I took that chance. Because this compound butter is that good. And I wanted to cram it in my face with freshly baked dinner rolls. (But it’s great on waffles, pancakes, banana bread, etc).

Related post: Cinnamon Toast Bar for holiday brunches

Brown sugar, bacon, and butter are pretty good together. But you add in the vanilla and you get a symphony for your mouth.  

The vanilla takes it just to the edge of tasting like cake batter stopping just short of being too sweet and allows it to pair perfectly with the bacon. This recipe does NOT call for cinnamon. I prefer it this way, but you could add it if you prefer.

I’m not 100% behind the bacon-in-sweets school of thought. But THIS I can get down with.

What is Compound Butter?

It’s easy to make homemade Compound Butter. Compound butters are just flavored butters that you can mix together with sweet or savory flavors.

You often find compound butter in steak houses. Blue cheese, truffle, and herb butter are all delicious on a steak. But you can make them sweet as well, as I have with this brown sugar butter.

For very little work, you can make a dish seem fancier than it truly is. It’s a great hack for when you have company over.

And all you have to do is soften butter, add more flavors and then pop it back in the fridge to harden back up. So simple. 

Ingredient Notes

• butter, I use salted
• bacon
• brown sugar
• vanilla
• Freshly baked rolls

And by fresh-baked rolls, I mean frozen (I like the Bridgford Frozen Dinner Rolls). But I totally thawed them and baked them myself. So that counts as homemade. 

The brown sugar is a tad gritty in the butter so it has this really velvety texture. Your mouth will really like it.

I usually use pre-cooked microwavable bacon for this recipe. Out of pure laziness. I also like that it doesn’t make a huge mess.

And it usually crisps up really nicely and doesn’t have those gross fatty parts that regular bacon can have. 

Nobody wants gross fatty pieces in their bacon butter. 

How to Make Compound Butter with Bacon and Brown Sugar

1. Soften the butter

Soften the butter to room temperature so it will mix well with the brown sugar and bacon. This will take a few hours. You can put it in a medium bowl and let it sit on the counter until you’re ready to use it.

2. Cook the bacon

Cook bacon in microwave and set aside to cool. This will take about 15 minutes to cool.

Use kitchen shears to cut up the bacon. I like to use shears because this doesn’t need to be precise and I also hate getting out the cutting board. (#lazy)

3. Add the rest of the ingredients

To the softened butter in the bowl, add the brown sugar, chopped bacon, and vanilla. Then mix well.

4. Mix well

I find a fork works great for this.

5. Chill

Cover and refrigerate until firm.

What to Serve it With

Serve this sweet recipe for compound butter with fresh baked rolls of all kinds. I like a traditional french roll, but sourdough and wheat would be lovely too. Even bagels would be delish!

I originally used this recipe on waffles and pancakes for the kids. And I love to lightly heat my banana bread and add a little to that too. Once you taste this butter, you’ll come up with all kinds of ways to use it. This recipe is so good!

Tips

I never remember to leave the butter out ahead of time though. Here are 3 ways to soften butter in case you forget to. 

Kitchen shears are my favorite way to cut up bacon. Actually, I use them to cut pizza and all kinds of other things too! 

Glass dishes with lids are my favorite. They are so simple and are perfect for going from the fridge to the table. 

This is seriously so easy to make. You’ll look like a Friendsgiving/Thanksgiving hero without hardly doing any work. 

That’s my kind of recipe. 

Don’t sleep on this Brown Sugar Bacon Butter. It’s the best way to turn ordinary dinner rolls into something amazing!

You seriously need to make this! Leave me a comment and let me know what you think!

Frequently Asked Questions

More delicious holiday recipes

• Brown Butter Corn Side Dish
• Apple Cookies with Butterscotch Chips
• Frozen Peanut Butter Pie
• Pumpkin Dump Cake
• Sherry Wine Cake
• Strawberry Angel Food Cake Dessert
• Creative Corn Recipes

This post was originally published in May 2012, and has now been updated.

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