caramel bacon bars

I was debating between which recipe to enter in the Foodbuzz BACONALIA contest, sponsored by Denny's. At first, I had made up my mind to submit the bacon wrapped pears, but at the last minute wanted to tweak a recipe for caramel bars, using crumbled bacon and bacon grease instead of all the butter in the original recipe. These are nowhere near as healthy as the former recipe, though they are addictive and swayed my opinion on which recipe to enter.

These couldn't be any simpler to make. First, you cook the bacon until crisp, saving 1/4 cup bacon grease. Graham crackers line the bottom of a foil-lined baking sheet and are topped with mini marshmallows.

Brown sugar is melted in a saucepan with bacon grease, butter, and cinnamon. A little vanilla is stirred in afterward, and then it gets drizzled over the graham crackers.

To finish, the top is sprinkled with unsweetened flaked coconut, sliced almonds, and the crumbled bacon.

The end result is a gooey, sticky treat that's similar to a candy bar and cookie, all in one. The bacon provides a satisfying saltiness to what would otherwise be an overwhelmingly sweet treat. What I liked the most is that these can be prepared in less time than it takes to make cookies, perfect if you want something fast that doesn't require a lot of effort.

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caramel bacon bars
Adapted from Taste of Home

ingredients -

12 whole graham crackers
4 cups miniature marshmallows
6 slices bacon, cooked until crispy, and crumbled
1/2 cup unsalted butter
1/4 cup bacon grease
3/4 cup packed brown sugar
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup sliced almonds
1 cup unsweetened flaked coconut

directions -

1. Line a 15-in. x 10-in. x 1-in. baking pan with foil; grease lightly. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Place graham crackers in pan; cover with marshmallows. In a saucepan over medium heat, cook butter, bacon grease, brown sugar and cinnamon until the butter is melted and sugar is dissolved. Remove from the heat; stir in vanilla.


2. Spoon over the marshmallows. Sprinkle with almonds, coconut, and bacon crumbles. Bake for 15 minutes or until browned. Cool completely. Cut into 2-in. squares, then cut each square in half to form triangles.

caramelized bacon wrapped pears

Foodbuzz is running a bacon-themed contest, so I decided to get into the kitchen and crank out some bacon desserts. First up is a simple but elegant bacon dessert with fruit, so the artery clogging is balanced out. Kidding. I liked the pears because they have a neutral flavor, though any fruit like peach and other stone fruit would work as well.

The necessary ingredients are pears, bacon, sugar, and POM juice for the sauce, though you could substitute a red wine if you preferred.

I sliced the pears lengthwise, then scooped out the cores and the bottoms and stems. I then wrapped each pear half with a slice of bacon. I meant to buy toothpicks to pierce into the fruit so the bacon stayed in place, but I forgot. I would suggest doing it.

When the skillet heated up, I sprinkled sugar in the skillet and placed the pears, sliced side down, on the sugar. I wanted the bacon to pan fry in the caramelized sugar and develop a sweet, crispy, and chewy texture.

The bacon cooked up great like this. After I flipped the pears and cooked the other side for a few minutes, I transferred the pears to a parchment lined baking sheet to place in the oven. I had to scrape out the caramelized sugar before cooking the other four pears because it had cooked too much and tasted like burnt sugar with essence of bacon, which still was surprisingly good. I munched on burnt bacon caramel while I finished up the remaining pears. You may question how I have any sense of taste left, but don't worry about me.

After cooking and removing the other pears, I added a tablespoon of butter and POM juice to the skillet, then let it cook down a bit to reduce and thicken. As the sauce cooked, the pears were baking nicely in the oven. They were a bit firm to begin with, but the texture came out great afterward. Easily sliceable, but not mushy. I was pretty happy with the outcome of this recipe, and I liked how simple it was to make a tasty fruit dessert that didn't need a pie crust. Try it out if you're a bacon fan.

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caramelized bacon wrapped pears
Recipe by Christina Provo

Serves 4

ingredients -

4 firm Bartlett pears
8 slices bacon
2/3 cup granulated sugar, divided
1 tablespoon unsalted butter
1/2 cup POM juice or red wine

directions -

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line a rimmed baking sheet with parchment paper; set aside. Slice the pears lengthwise. Scoop out cores and stems. Take a slice of bacon and wrap it around one half, securing ends with toothpicks (press them in deep, leaving enough of the end sticking out to remove before serving. Repeat with rest of pear halves and bacon.


2. Heat a large skillet over medium. When hot, sprinkle with 1/3 cup sugar. Immediately place pear halves on top, cut side down. Cook for 5 minutes; carefully flip over and continue cooking for another 5 minutes. Remove to baking sheet and place in oven. Discard caramel in pan onto a sheet of foil to cool before throwing out. Add remaining sugar and repeat cooking process.


3. After pears are removed from skillet, add butter and stir. Slowly pour in POM juice, stirring with a whisk constantly. Let cook on medium for about 5-7 minutes, until thickened and reduced.


4. Spoon sauce onto bottom of plate and top with two pear halves. Enjoy!

peanut butter espresso cookies with candied bacon

A conversation I had a while ago about candied bacon chocolate chip cookies sparked the idea of baking a batch of my peanut butter espresso cookies and stirring in chopped candied bacon.

At first, the idea of bacon in cookies sounds repulsive. I don't like when syrup touches bacon, so I wasn't sure what I would think of however this turned out.

The first step is to candy the bacon. To do this, you place strips of bacon on a parchment-lined rimmed baking sheet and sprinkle with brown sugar. You then bake for about 30 minutes total.

The bacon needs to be a deep brownish-red color in order for the bacon to harden when cooled. The bacon in the picture actually wasn't cooked long enough and never got crispy, so I stuck it back in the oven to cook a bit longer.

You want the bacon crispy, no chewy, so it won't be difficult to chop into pieces.

I decreased the chocolate chips to 1/2 cup and stirred in the bacon, 10 strips worth. My initial thoughts was, "Ew, I just bit into bacon." After a while, though, I didn't really feel like it made the cookie taste bad, and it was actually rather nice. My dad thought it tasted like oatmeal.

The cons, however, is that the amazing texture of the candied bacon wasn't present in the cookie. The pieces you bit into weren't crunchy, but chewy. I think if I had coated the bacon in chocolate, let it harden, then used that in place of the chocolate chips the flavor might have remained and created an even better cookie. But the subtle bacon with the coffee coating was rather good in its own way.

As an alternative, you can also sprinkle candied bacon on roasted Brussels sprouts, green bean casserole, salads, and mashed potatoes. Or oatmeal.

I'm entering this to Lisa's "Sweets for Saturday".

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Candied Bacon
Recipe adapted from Pete Bakes!

ingredients -

Strips of bacon (I used ten)
Brown sugar
1 recipe Peanut Butter Espresso Cookies

directions -

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line a rimmed baking sheet with parchment paper. Place strips of bacon flat on sheet, making sure they don't overlap. Sprinkle each slice with about 2 tablespoons of brown sugar, rubbing it in a bit.


2. Cook for 15 minutes. Flip bacon over, dragging slices in syrup. Continue cooking for another 15-17 minutes, or until the bacon is a deep mahogany color. Remove from oven and let cool slightly. Transfer bacon to a cooling rack to cool completely. Coarsely chop into pieces, or leave whole (if you don't think you'll resist).