Soooo…I put bacon in your brownies. But first, I baked them with brown sugar and watched the bacon strips get all caramelized and sweet. Seriously guys, brown sugar baked bacon is NOT a joke. It’s too good, and I recommend making more than you need for the recipe just to snack on. In addition: the only complaint from this recipe was “not enough bacon,” so I bumped up the amount of bacon in the recipe so you all have an even better brownie than I did. Really, is there ever enough bacon?
Some of you may be scoffing at me and shaking your head, wondering why in the world I would be putting bacon into brownies. The better question is why have I not done it sooner?!?! I’m seriously lagging on the bacon-baked good thing, but now I’m totally on board, and I hope you guys are too. If you haven’t tried it – these bacon caramel brownies are the perfect place to start.
The crunchy, sweet bites of bacon are layered throughout the brownie, and add the perfect salty counterpart to the sweetness of the caramel. You want enough bacon to be tasting it in every single bite! So good.
If you haven’t tried the bacon in baked goods thing yet…you should definitely give it a go with these brownies. You’ll be surprised. If you already love bacon in your baked goods…well, then you already know how good it is!
Ingredients
- For the bacon
- 8 slices bacon
- ¼ cup light brown sugar For the brownies
- 11 ounces dark chocolate, coarsely chopped
- 1 cup (8 ounces) unsalted butter, softened and cut into 1-inch pieces
- 1½ cups granulated sugar
- ½ cup packed light brown sugar
- 5 eggs, at room temperature
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- 1¼ cups all-purpose flour
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 2 tablespoons dark unsweetened cocoa powder
- 1 cup caramel sauce or dulce de leche
Instructions
- For the bacon
- Preheat oven to 375ºF. Add bacon brown sugar to a large Ziploc bag and toss until bacon is coated.
- Line a baking sheet with a wire rack and lay bacon on the rack. Put the baking sheet on the top rack of the oven and bake until crisp, about 15 minutes. Remove from the oven. Let cool, and then chop into large chunks. For the brownies
- Preheat the oven to 350ºF. Butter the sides and bottom of a 9×13-inch baking pan. Line the pan with parchment paper and grease.
- In a medium bowl, whisk the flour, salt, and cocoa powder together.
- Put the chocolate and butter in a large microwavable bowl and microwave in 30 second increments, stirring each 30 seconds, until the chocolate and butter are completely melted and smooth. Add the sugars. Whisk until completely combined. 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 in.
- Sprinkle the flour mixture over the chocolate mixture. Using a rubber spatula (not a whisk), fold the flour mixture into the chocolate until just a bit of the flour mixture is visible.
- Pour half the batter into the prepared pan and smooth out into an even layer. Drizzle half of the caramel sauce or dulce de leche around the brownie batter. Sprinkle half of the bacon bits evenly over the batter. Spread the remaining batter on top, and repeat with remaining caramel and bacon.
- 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 lift them out of the pan using the parchment paper. Cut into squares and serve.
- Store at room temperature in an airtight container or wrap with plastic wrap for up to 3 days.
P.S. I accidentally burned some of the bacon…which was why there wasn’t enough! Ah, oops. Sorry!
