#51 New Recipes: Bacon Brownies with Bourbon Caramel Sauce

I was really excited to make this new recipe, after the resounding success of my Bacon Chocolate Chip Cookies which were so delicious, and especially because I thought this would add a new delicious twist with the bourbon caramel sauce. I was also excited because I've never made brownies from scratch before.

Well... after having made them I think the cookies came out better. The brownies were very tasty, but they didn't taste very brownie like. They were more crumbly and less moist than I would have liked them. I think it's possible that the 1 cup of bacon the recipe calls for is too much. I thought that perhaps the scratch recipe wasn't very good, but Chef Hubby said it looked right to him, so he and I came up with a theory that perhaps the bacon sucked out the extra moisture or just added too much "solid" to the mix which is why the brownies didn't really rise. I'm definitely going to try them again sometime with about half a cup of bacon.

Bacon Brownies with Bourbon Caramel Sauce
Makes 9 brownies

Ingredients:
2 eggs
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1 cup sugar
1/2 lb bittersweet chocolate (I used Ghiradelli's bittersweet chocolate chips)
1/2 cup butter
1/2 cup flour
1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1 cup thick cut bacon, chopped

Directions:
1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees

2. Cook the bacon in a saute pan over medium heat until cripsy. Remove from pan and drain on paper towels.

You want to make sure the fat on the bacon turns a slightly caramel looking color, that means that it's nice and crispy!

2. Whisk together the eggs, vanilla and sugar until smooth.

3. In a double boiler, melt the chocolate and butter, stirring to combine. A double boiler is really just a pot of water, boiling, with a glass or heat resistant bowl above it filled with the chocolate & butter. This keeps the chocolate and butter from burning or sticking.

This keeps the chocolate and butter from burning or sticking. You still want to make sure you stir in plenty! I suggest using a flexible spatula.

4. Add the chocolate and butter mixture to the eggs/vanilla/sugar mixture and stir to combine. Then, sift together the flour and cocoa powder and fold into the wet mixture. Fold in the bacon.

5. Spread the batter into a parchment line 8" square pan (I used aluminum foil instead of parchment). Bake for 20-25 minutes. Let cool in the pan. Cut into 2" square pieces - should yield 9 brownies.

Now, here's the awesome part. The Bourbon Caramel Sauce. The next time I want to make caramel sauce, this is definitely what I'm using - it's delicious!

Ingredients:
1 cup sugar
1/4 cup bourbon
1/4 cup butter
1/4 cup heavy cream.

Make sure you have all your ingredients lined up and ready to go, because once the sugar melts into caramel you want to get them in there quickly!

1. Cook sugar over medium-low heat for about 10 minutes or until golden brown and caramelized.

DO NOT STIR. I repeat, DO NOT STIR. The sugar will start to melt, it will not burn. You can knock some of the white sugar off the top of any piles into the melty part, but you want to just let it melt without stirring it around too much. Chef Hubby yelled at me because I was doing it wrong at first.

Seriously, it just like melts into caramel. It's really cool.

2. Add the bourbon and stir to combine.

3. Add the butter and cream and stir to combine. Cook for another 10 minutes or until the sauce comes together.

See? You can see that the brownies didn't rise much. I might have to make this brownie recipe sometime without the bacon in it and see if that effects anything.

So the brownies... so-so in my opinion. Tasty. The bacon was good. But a little too dry and crumbly for my tastes. The bourbon caramel sauce was fantastic.