Bacon and Chocolate: Salty and Sweet II

A few months ago I did an entry on chocolate covered bacon and mentioned chocolate bacon brownies and chocolate chip bacon cookies, although I did not give from scratch recipes for the cookies or brownies. Friday was Chocolate Chip Cookie Day, and my friend Sal sent her recipe for Chocolate Chip Bacon Cookies. It appeared in a comment on DyingforChocolate.com, but not everyone reads the comments, so here is Sal's recipe.

1C dark semi-sweet chips and 3/4C (i.e. 3/4 lb uncooked) bacon bits. The recipe I was working from also added 1C white chocolate chips (of which I had none) and used 2C (2lbs!!! uncooked) bacon bits so the ratio I used was about the same, but I do like to have a =little= dough in between my bits of chocolate and bacon.

Recipe says NOT BACOS only real bacon bits.
The fat in the dough is butter.

From Sal: "I cooked the cookies almost all the way and cooled them on racks, then put them back on a cookie sheet (2 1/2 cookie sheets worth onto one cookie sheet). Right before dessert, I put the cookies back in a 350 F oven for three minutes. Guests thought I'd somehow miraculously been baking cookies while we ate dinner."

Bacon must be on everyone's mind this weekend because my friend Louise at Months of Edible Celebrations sent me a link to Lemonpi for what appears to be an incredible Bacon Brownie recipe, along with some very fun comfort food advice. This recipe was featured in O Magazine and awarded 'best brownie' by America's Test Kitchen and the Today Show. Pretty good credentials with or without the bacon. I converted some of the measurements and temp., but I wasn't positive about the bacon slices. When I bake, I do a lot of guesswork-a pinch of this and a pinch of that, but often a whole bunch of this and a whole bunch of that, especially with chocolate.

The Baked Brownie:
(yields 24 brownies; recipe from Baked by Matt Lewis and Renato Poliafito)

1 1/4 cups plain flour
1 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons dark unsweetened cocoa powder
11 oz dark chocolate (60 - 72% cacao), coarsely chopped [use a great quality chocolate]
8 oz unsalted butter, cut into 1-inch pieces
1 teaspoon instant espresso powder
1 1/2 cups caster sugar (super fine sugar)
1/2 cup firmly packed light brown sugar
5 large eggs, at room temperature
2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract

Preheat the oven to 176′C (350 F) Butter the sides and bottom of a 9-by-13-inch glass or light-colored metal baking pan.

In a medium bowl, whisk the flour, salt and cocoa powder together.
Put the chocolate, butter, and instant espresso powder in a large bowl and set it over a saucepan of simmering water, stirring occasionally, until the chocolate and butter are completely melted and smooth. Turn off the heat, but keep the bowl over the water and add the sugars. Whisk until completely combined, then remove the bowl from the pan. The mixture should be room temperature.

Add 3 eggs to the chocolate mixture and whisk until combined. Add the remaining eggs and whisk until combined. Add the vanilla and stir until combined. Do not overbeat the batter at this stage or your brownies will be cakey.

Sprinkle the flour mixture over the chocolate mixture. Using a spatula (not a whisk), fold the flour mixture into the chocolate until just a bit of the flour mixture is visible.

Pour the batter into the prepared pan and smooth the top. Bake in the center of the oven for 30 minutes, rotating the pan halfway through the baking time, until a toothpick inserted into the center of the brownies comes out with a few moist crumbs sticking to it. Let the brownies cool completely, then cut them into squares and serve.

Tightly covered with plastic wrap, the brownies keep at room temperature for up to 3 days.

To baconize the Baked Brownie:
Bake 2.6 grams (5-6 slices? more?) thinly sliced proscuitto or bacon in the oven until crispy. Crumble the bacon slices over the top of the brownie batter (or fold it through the mix) before baking. The bacon brownie is best eaten on the day it’s made, if you like your bacon crispy. Otherwise, the bacon will soften a little over the next couple of days, but still be perfectly tasty.

I can't wait to try these.