Redheads with Tools versus Blondes with Bacon

Calculate the trajectory. Adjust your angle.

Launch that Pork Projectile!*

*assuming zero porcine spin and downward acceleration of gravity of 9.8 m/s².

I tend to tinker with recipes and gadgets. So far I haven't destroyed my basement or set fire to the kitchen (though there was the one incident with the flaming pot holder). Sometimes the results are interesting. Sometimes we remove the remains in a bucket.

Sunday  I was tinkering around the crashpad workbench out in the frozen garage, but the thick gloves made me about as dexterous with tools as Tyrannosaurus Rex.  Time for plan B for experimenting until the temperatures come up a bit.

The Kitchen!   Brownies sounded good.  But I was out of cocoa, having just the basics, plus brown sugar, whipped cream, heavy cream and BACON!  (You can see where this is going, can't you). Butterscotch Brownies otherwise known as Blondies! With Bacon and salted caramel.  But I didn't want to make a whole pan, just a little weekend treat, with perhaps a extra large one I could take to my administrative assistant at squirrel central on Monday morning.

My first batch, I poured the caramel directly on the brownie batter before cooking.  Big mistake.  The thick layer of caramel boiled, lowering the temperature of the batter, so that the end of cooking time I had what looked like butterscotch jello.  Cooking it further simply crystallized all of that sugar.  It smelled wonderful but the the texture and firmness were way off (put it this way, I could have added some raisins and passed it off as an English dessert, and not in a good way).

The Second Batch?  Oh yes.

Chewy, Buttery, Sweet, Smoky, Salty. 

For the second batch, I added a little bit of chopped cooked smoked bacon to the batter and baked normally, brushed a tiny bit of the salted caramel on them as a glaze when they came out of the oven and drizzled a bit more over the top when serving.  We have liftoff!

Bacon Butterscotch Brownies with Salted Caramel