Bacon Bourbon Brownies

My favorite dessert item would be, hands down, brownies. I adore them. As a kid, I once ordered an ice cream sundae without the ice cream just to get a brownie with hot fudge on it. I really appreciate a good brownie.

My favorite brownies are the fudgey (how do you spell that?), almost chewy, dotted with melted chocolate within, and warm. I used to use boxed brownie mixes a heck of a lot. After the past year of trying an excessive amount of brownies from scratch, I know now why I never strayed from the box. Fudgy brownies from scratch are not, in my opinion, easy. Cakey brownies from scratch- super easy.



These brownies looked so good in the pictures in the magazine, I was sold before I even realized they had the added wondefulness of bacon and bourbon.



These were fun to make, my kitchen smelled amazing! These were pretty good tasting, but a bit cakey for my taste.(Did I mention that I'm a kinda picky eater of brownies?) It could be that after 40 minutes, they were done done done- my oven runs hot, even when I adjust for that it seems to make my baked goods cook up a bit faster. The recipe calls for taking them out when they are 'wobbly' in the middle, I bet that would work magically.



Bacon Bourbon Brownies with Pecans
from Food & Wine Magazine Aug, 2011

makes 24 brownies

ingredients

1/2 cup pecans
1/2 pound bacon, sliced
8 ounces bittersweet chopped chocolate
2 ounces unsweetened chopped chocolate
1 stick & 2 tbs unsalted butter
1 cup sugar
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
3 tbs bourbon
4 large eggs
1 tsp salt
1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1 1/2 cups flour

Preheat your oven to a toasty 350 degrees. Use some parchment paper to line a 9x9in square baking dish.

Toast the pecans in a pie plate for about 8 minutes in the preheating oven. After they have cooled off a bit, chop them coarsely.

Cook the bacon in a skillet ans save 3 tablespoons of the fat. When the bacon has cooled, chop it up.

In a saucepan, mix the two chocolates with the butter and stir over low heat until it's all melted. Pour it into a large bowl and mix in both sugars and the bacon fat. Next, beat in the bourbon. Then add the eggs and salt, mix it until smooth. Lastly, stir in the cocoa powder and flour.

Pour the batter into the pan and sprinkle the bacon and pecans on top (I think I went a bit overboard, use as much or as little of it as you like). Bake for 40-50 minutes. You want the edges to be set but the middle to be wobbly.

Let them cool completely, then cut them into squares and serve!

Enjoy!
-m