Hungry Scientist

Jennifer 8. Lee’s blog in today’s Times about Roni-Sue’s bacon-covered chocolate reminded us of one of our beloved long-lost recipes from the book. (Backstory: most of the straightforward “food” recipes had to be cut because of—ahem—marketing concerns.) With our cromagnon love of combinations of sugar and salt, we originally included a simple but orgasmic treat of baked dates wrapped with bacon. Now that we’ve started pushing liquid nitrogen ice cream all over the airwaves, we’re big fans of bacon-espresso gelato. (Freezing it with LN2 keeps the bacon bits extra crispy.) Like many DIY foodies, aside from the veggie subset, we seek total bacon bacchanalia.

Covering bacon with chocolate is easy — cf Instructables. Included below is a slightly more involved bacon-chocolate situation, trolled from A Good Appetite, And for good measure, here’s an archive of bacon grease recipes. It really is an extraordinary ingredient.

Dark Chocolate & Bacon Cupcakes

8 slices good thick-cut bacon
1 c unsalted butter
1/2 c Hershey’s Special Dark Cocoa
3/4 c water
2 c granulated sugar
2 large eggs
1/2 c well-shaken buttermilk
2 T vanilla
2 c all-purpose flour
1/2 t baking soda
1 t baking powder
1/4 t salt

Preheat oven to 350 F. Prepare 24 muffin tins. Chop bacon into about 1/2-inch pieces. Cook over med-high heat in a skillet until bacon is brown & crisp. Remove bacon with a slotted spoon to a paper towel to drain. Pat any remaining oil off the bacon. Set aside.

Melt butter in a large heavy saucepan over moderately low heat, then whisk in cocoa. Add water and whisk until smooth. Remove from heat. Whisk in separately sugar, eggs, buttermilk, and vanilla. Sift flour, baking soda, baking powder, and salt into the cocoa mixture and whisk until just combined (it will be a little bit lumpy). Stir in bacon.

Fill muffin tins to about 2/3 full. Bake for 20 minutes until a skewer or toothpick comes out clean. It’s a moist cake, so don’t worry if a few crumbs stick to your tester.
Allow cupcakes to cool.

Makes 24 cupcakes.

Dark Chocolate Frosting

1/2 c unsalted butter
2/3 c Hershey’s Special Dark
3 c powdered sugar
1/3 c milk
1 t vanilla extract

Melt butter. Stir in cocoa. Alternately add powdered sugar and milk, beating to spreading consistency. Add small amount additional milk, if needed. Stir in vanilla.
Makes about 2 cups frosting.
Frost the cupcakes & sprinkle with a little Fleur de Sel right before serving.