Elevate Your Peanut Butter And Bacon Sandwich With A Sweet Bread Swap

Peanut butter and jelly are paired so often they've earned their own acronym, but peanut butter and bacon is well on its way to classic status thanks to one long-deceased celebrity. Yes, if we ever add "PBB" to the dictionary, it will be thanks to the man who gave us "TCB": the one and only Elvis Presley. While the Elvis sandwich as we know it today is typically made with bananas, thus making it a "PBBB," the original Colorado sandwich of which the King was so fond didn't contain any tropical fruit. Instead, the Fool's Gold served at Denver's Colorado Mine Company in the 1970s consisted of peanut butter, blueberry jam, and bacon on sourdough bread. We have no quibbles with the other ingredients (although a different flavor of jelly or honey would also work), but think a sweeter bread like cinnamon raisin would be better.

The reason you should consider swapping sourdough for cinnamon raisin bread is that this will make for a sandwich that's softer and easier to chew than one made with a denser, sturdier loaf. The umami-heavy combo of peanut butter and bacon will also be balanced out by the addition of another sweet element and won't have to fight against any sourness of the bread.

There's one tiny flaw with our cinnamon raisin bread suggestion that's likely to turn off a few of you (as well as some of us here at The Takeout): The stuff has raisins in it, and the dried grape hate is real. In fact, according to the USDA, Americans only eat about half as many raisins as we did in the late '80s since there are now options like craisins and other dried fruits to put in our cookies. (Admit it, oatmeal raisin cookies are a lot better without the latter ingredient). As for our sweet breads, yes, we have choices here, as well. If you can find (or make) a raisin-free cinnamon bread, that would work, but if not, why not go with banana bread for your PBB? This would certainly be in the true Elvis spirit.

Should you prefer bread that's not quite so dessert-like, as well as being more dense and sandwichable, brioche has a certain sweetness to it, as do Hawaiian rolls. Challah bread is also fairly sweet, as is Japanese milk bread. If you want something truly over the top to complement your peanut butter and bacon, however, you could always split and toast a plain or cinnamon cake doughnut and use this as the foundation of your sandwich.