Bacon is sweet!

If you don’t know already, I love bacon. I may become a bacon lady one day…in the same way that there are cat ladies. That might scare some people, but I’m pretty sure you’d still come over to visit. The other day I found this fantastic little gem on the internet: The Baconcyclopedia. Did you know that bacon is one of the oldest meats in history? I wonder if I could make my own bacon salt? I need to meet this woman. We could be BFFs!

More importantly did you know that tomorrow, Saturday, Sept 3 is International Bacon Day? In honor of this INTERNATIONAL Holiday I bring you this post on bacon.

My unnatural lust for bacon has developed, in recent months, into a fascination of trying out new ways to cook with bacon. My interest specifically lies in mixing salty deliciousness of bacon with chocolate or something sweet. I can’t remember exactly when this new obsession started. I think it was inspired by the milk chocolate + bacon bar by Vosges. Chocolate and bacon! Brilliant! Why hadn’t I thought of that before? So here are a few of my recent, very tasty endeavors with bacon—all of which, I highly recommend.

Bacon Jam

If you follow this blog, you know that Bacon Jam marks my most recent expedition into a whole new level of bacon worship. I commonly refer to it as awesomesauce:

(From the Urban Dictionary: Awesomesauce is prepared by mixing equal parts of awesome, amazing and breathtaking. The awesomeness is slowly cooked and small parts of uncanny, extraordinary and magnificent are added. When no one expects it, the awesomesauce should asplode in huge fireworks, sonic booms, gorgeous girls, american flags and monster-trucks.)

I see making lots of this for Christmas gifts this year!

Brown butter, bacon, and Chocolate Chip Cookies

I found this recipe on Pinterest and gave it a whirl a few months ago. They were very good!

Chocolatey, bacony, cookie goodness!

Here are my adjustments (I never fully follow the directions):

FYI you pretty much have to fry a whole pack of bacon to get a cup worth of chopped bacon

I used 1/4 cup of semi sweet choc chips. I figured I had already chopped bacon, I'm not chopping chocolate too.

And I used milk choc chips. I am sure the grated chocolate is nice, but again...I chopped up bacon. I'm not chopping/shaving/grating anything else. One chopped item per recipe

Bourbon Bacon Bites

This is a Paula Deen recipe and is really easy to make. You can eat it straight or, if it makes you feel better about yourself, sprinkle on a  salad. The recipe is in The Deen Family Cookbook and I can't seem to find a link to it online. 

My method is very similar to this one which they call Pig Candy. PERFECT!

This is what you do:

Brush slices of bacon with bourbon.

Rub brown sugar on both sides of the bacon (you could also add a little cayenne pepper if you want it spicy too).

Put the bacon on a cookie sheet and bake for about 8-10 minutes at 350 until the bacon is done (a nice maple color). I think because of the sugar and bourbon, it has a tendency to burn quickly so just keep an eye on it. 

Bacon Pancake Bites

This is one of my favorite recipes of all time! Using inspiration from this post , I cooked about half a pack of bacon and then crumbled it into pieces after it cooled. Then I whipped up some pancake batter (I used one straight out of the box...and if you can find it, sweet potato pancake mix would be AWESOME--I find it at Fresh Market), added the bacon to the batter, and baked in a mini muffin pan. When they're done, pop them out, and serve with maple syrup to dip them in! Sadly, I don't think I have a photo of these but trust me when I tell you that they're the best weekend breakfast you'll ever make.