They’ve always said that the easiest way to a lover’s heart is through their stomach. So it is with today’s latest trend, where pork passionate “paramours” please one with the gentle heat & sweet of a salty and sultry, tantalizing treat of taste-bud temptation.

Were talking about chocolaty caress of freshly dipped flesh, bacon that is … and it’s the latest rage in “Elite Epicurean Eroticism” as lovers willingly surrender themselves to the appetizingly ambrosial allure of today’s acknowledged and approved aphrodisiac of the aficionados …chocolate dipped bacon.

The amazing thing is that it’s so very simple to prepare and enjoy.

Simply cook the bacon till firm, but not brittle while slowly heating a fine chocolate to the point of melting, just like the will power of that very “special someone” whom you plan to enjoy this intoxicating and feverishly famished flesh-fest with.

Remember to drain and pat off any excess grease and allow to cool enough to avoid any injury when these sheets of sweet and salty sizzle are dipped in the luxurious luster of love and lust’s number 1 accomplice, a good quality, fine chocolate, warmed up slowly in a fondue pot or “double boiler” and relaxed just enough to allow it to voluntarily give up it’s existential essence with ease and ecstatic enthusiasm.

It truly takes two to tango … so slowly and playfully take turns teasingly and pleasingly feeding one another this sumptuously satisfying sensation and make a playful dance of it. You won’t be disappointed, we guarantee it!

Bon Appetit!

Faithful reader Jack Nixon wrote to us at Bacon Today after he and his fiancée embarked on an outing to Ocean City, N.J. Let’s just say the lovely couple told us about something that we find much more exciting than beaches, boardwalks and salt-water taffy.

Of course, we know the Jersey shore is both a beautiful vacation spot as well as inspiration for one of the most artistically significant television series of all time. We get that. But Jack found something we find far more appealing: Chocolate-covered bacon.

That’s right. You heard us correctly. Chocolate-covered bacon. Jack wandered into a local candy shop and discovered this seaside surprise.  Here’s a photo that proves Jack wasn’t suffering a post-sunbathing delirium from too much time on the beach.

We’re unsure how many Bacon Today readers visit Ocean City during an average summer, but we bet Jack and his fiancée are far from alone. That’s why we wanted to spread the word about the modern wonder that is chocolate-covered bacon.

But how does it really taste?

Here’s how Jack describes the candy-covered treat: “The bacon was nice and crunchy and the chocolate was delicious!”

Sure it was, Jack. Now, please be a kind reader and send us a sample

This is a recipe that Boss Hog’s Great, Great Grandmother passed down through the generations and it always puts a big smile on Boss Hog’s face when one of the boys or gals out in the “Pig Pen” whip up a batch to surprise the Boss with.

If ever you have stopped to ask yourself the increasingly popular question, “Got Milk,” when serving up these Bacon Chocolate Peanut Clumps is a perfect time for the answer to that question to be “YES … Most definitely!

They also go phenomenally with a nice, hot cup of gourmet coffee. We highly and strongly recommend both beverages be served together with these babies. Try it once and we are sure that you will agree.

(Serves 1 Boss Hog or 8 regular people)

Ingredients:

8 strips Boss Hog Hickory Smoked – Maple Bacon

16 ounces semisweet chocolate chips

1 cup unsalted peanuts

1 pot gourmet specialty coffee

1 gallon of cold, fresh milk to be served in frosted glasses.

Directions:

First, cook the bacon to a state on moderate crispiness in a large skillet over medium heat, being sure to ensure consistency of the bacon by turning it over several times during the cooking process, until well browned, approximately 8 minutes.

Place the cooked bacon on a plate between a couple of paper towels and dab / pat to remove the excess bacon grease.

Chop up the bacon quite “finely” into very small “tid-bits” of ultimate joy.

Warning: at this point in the process, you will feel a very strong inclination to simply forget all about the clumps and simply eat all of the bacon by itself. Try to avoid doing this, as the clumps really are quite amazingly delicious! You simply have to exhibit the ultimate “will power” to move forward in the process and experience them for yourself. You truly won’t be disappointed!

Now line a large baking sheet with some aluminum foil, shiny side “up!”

Melt your chocolate by putting the chocolate chips into a double boiler or by placing them into a medium sized, metal mixing bowl which is then [placed over a small to medium sized pan of water.

Let the boiling of the water begin.

Once the water begins to boil in either vessel, begin to stir the chocolate continuously to ensure a smooth, creamy and unburned consistency.

Now stir in the bacon bits and the peanuts.

Then pour the “globs” of “baco-choco- peano-osity “onto the prepared baking sheet, spread to approximately ½ an inch thickness.

Now simply place the baking sheet into the refrigerator and allow it to cool for 1 hour.

When the chocolate in fully hard and breakable, you will know it is done and ready to eat.

Place you’re the cooled, clumpy concoction on a cutting board and cut it into bite sized pieces and then serve at room temperature with an icy glass of fresh milk and a hot cup of gourmet, specialty blend coffee.

Enjoy!

I am always approached with all things bacon, and I received a call from a company that produces fresh chocolates with unique flavor combinations using high quality, all natural ingredients. I will be honest that didn’t get my attention until she said, “It is our goal to bring cutting edge flavors and technologies to the chocolate industry, and deliver them to you as soon as they’re made.” And I said, “Yeah so?” and she said, well we have several new limited edition products including bacon covered chocolate.” Now she had my attention and I immediately ordered a box!

This company is called Luca Chocolate which is based in North Carolina. In speaking with them I learned that their chef and owner studied nutrition in college and went to the French Culinary Institute to study Classic Pastry Arts. The idea of LUCA Chocolate began officially in December 2006. What started off as a simple idea in the home kitchen and a lot of experimentation with many pounds of sugar, pints of cream and tablespoons of butter created a now successful business!

At this point I am sure each of you want to know what does chocolate taste like when paired with bacon? It’s pretty darn good. It’s sweet, and salty, and a little smoky and really something you might just need to try.

They offer several options including: Bacon Caramels: 4 of our signature caramels, topped with a crisp piece of bacon and covered in your choice of milk or dark chocolate and a sprinkle of sea salt. The box includes 8 pieces of chocolate covered bacon, 4 bacon caramels, and 2 bourbon and black pepper truffles. There’s also a big box (that’s one whole pound) with double the amount of chocolatey-bacon goodness.

The owner of Luca Chocolate said that she would rather have one amazing piece of chocolate than a whole box full of something mediocre. With my candies, I hope I can re-create that for someone else. I’m trying to find that balance between unique flavor combinations and classic ones. I don’t want them to be overpoweringly rich, but I’d like to find that a person savors each piece, instead of eating them quickly.

Well Bacon Freaks, if you like bacon like I do, this is a must try treat! Let me know how you enjoyed the bacon chocolate.

Be sure to check em out at:
http://lucachocolate.com/

Signing Off and Pigging Out,

Rocco “Boss Hog” Loosbrock
www.baconfreak.com

Bacon Today reader Paul S. spotted this sign at the Canadian National Exhibition on Saturday Aug 29. The “Ex” is a yearly fair. It’s 130 years old, the largest fair in Canada, and the fourth largest in North America, with over 1.3 millions visitors annually over its 18 day run every August.

The poster makes the bacon look mighty tasty but Paul said that “a long line-up prevented sampling.” We understand that it’s tough to wait in long lines but for chocolate covered bacon??? I think I’d wait hours.

Folks, would you have waited?

I want to hear your opinion in the comments to this article. Do you consider chocolate covered bacon to be a delicious candy treat or a nutritious meaty meal?

Vote now and make yourself heard.

– Mr. B

The Chocolate Show in New York this weekend had a very special guest — bacon. Rhonda Kave, owner of the chocolate shop Roni-Sue’s, brought her chocolate-dipped bacon to the show and it was an instant hit.

You don’t have to travel to the Chocolate Show to get your bacon fix though. If you’ve got $38 (plus $15 shipping) burning a hole in your pocket you can fill your belly with one pound of chocolate and bacony goodness from the comfort of your own home (or get half a pound for $20). Roni-Sue’s sells their “pig candy” as they call it at their online store. You can even choose between two types of chocolate to cover your bacon. Roni-Sue’s offers Callebaut Dark Chocolate, Callebaut Milk Chocolate, or a mix of both.

Hey Roni-Sue’s — got any samples you can send us?

source: http://cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/11/07/mmm-bacon-of-the-chocolate-covered-variety/?apage=1

photo credit: http://flickr.com/photos/edsel_/2907824567/

Yes. It’s true. We finally did it. If you liked bacon cinnamon rolls, you’re going to love this. The picture above is the result of the coming together of two major food groups. Meat and brownies (yes, they’re a food group) have finally found common ground and joined forces to form a uniquely irresistible combination of flavors. Not since chocolate and peanut butter came together to create the peanut butter cup have we seen the introduction of such a Smastey™ dessert food. The good news is that you too can make bacon brownies. Here’s how.

The bacon brownies started, like so many other delicious dishes, with a trip to the grocery store.

There it is. This huge stack of fresh sliced bacon is selling for $3.49/lb. (That’s US$3.49/450g for all you international bacon fans.)  I only used 4 slices for the bacon brownies, but I can always eat more, so I bought a full pound of bacon.

Next, I needed to get the brownie mix. I guess it’s been a while since I made brownies, because I was blown away when I discovered that there are no fewer than 20 types of brownie mix. No-Pudge Fudge, Dark Chocolate, Peanut Butter. The list is long and delicious. I settled on the Betty Crocker Turtle Brownie mix. (It comes with a bag of caramel – how could I resist?)

Next up, eggs and vegetable oil.

Okay, time to get down to it.

1) Pre-heat your oven to 350°F.

2) Grease a 13”x9” baking pan. (8” and 9” square pans will also work just fine.)

3) Heat up a frying pan. Pre-cook some bacon for about 3 minutes per side. Not too much – we don’t want to totally fry it, we just want to get it a little past raw. Raw is bad for taste as well as for your intestinal tract. The bacon should just be starting to brown and might be a little crispy.

4) When the bacon is ready, set it aside on a plate lined with paper towels to help drain some of the grease.

5) Following the directions on the box, combine the brownie mix, vegetable oil, water and eggs.

6) When the batter is ready, pour slightly less than half of it into the pan.

7) Now add the bacon. You can go as big or as small as you like. That’s the great thing about bacon – there’s no wrong amount unless you don’t have enough! For this batch, I used four strips of bacon. I only added bacon to half the batch because I wanted to be able to compare the taste of bacon brownies to regular brownies. If I were making a full batch I probably would have used 8-10 slices.

Now add the rest of the brownie batter on top of the bacon. Be sure to cover it all up.

9) A little tasty caramel to finish it off.

10) It’s ready for the oven, so take another look at the box and bake it for however long it says. Betty Crocker suggested 27 minutes, but I found that the brownies were done in just 22.

11) Let the brownies cool for a few minutes, then cut with a sharp knife and make your wife/husband/neighbor/friend/stranger walking by come taste them with you.

I have to say, bacon brownies are a clear winner. There is something magical about the combination of chocolate and bacon. In fact, we did a post some time ago about chocolate covered bacon. Bacon brownies are no exception. The creamy, gooey caramel. The moist chocolate. The salty bacon. This batch had a near perfect bacon infusion. The taste of bacon was subtle, coming through on the finish instead of overpowering the palette, which was the problem with bacon lemon bars. (Coming soon, I’m sorry to say.)

I highly recommend that every one of you run out and buy some bacon and some brownie mix and try this one for yourselves. Bacon brownies blew away the SRI with a Smaste™ rating of 54.639, which is the highest Smaste™ rating ever! An amazing dessert that can be eaten at any hour.

Life is good. Bacon is better.

– Mike