Bacon-Bourbon Brownies with Pecans

My friend Jena made these chocolatey, gooey, bacon-y brownies for our Iron Chef Bacon Cook Off a few weeks ago. Her inspiration was a recipe from Food & Wine. I'm a lover of the entire genre of brownies; I've never met a brownie I didn't like except the first batch I ever made. Those somehow ended up as flat cookie bars with burnt edges. It was a long time ago, so I no longer remember what I did to make them so horribly wrong.

These, though, are so delicious that you must find some reason to whip up a batch right away. She served them with vanilla ice cream and sprinkled everything with bacon. Oh, my stomach is growling right now. Wonder how many sit-ups I'd have to do to work off a whole pan of these?

Ingredients

1/2 cup chopped pecans
2/3 pound sliced bacon
10 oz bittersweet chocolate, chopped
1 stick of butter plus 2 tbsp
1 cup sugar
1/2 cup brown sugar
3 tbsp bourbon
4 large eggs
1 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1 1/2 cups flour

Vanilla ice cream (optional)

Instructions

Preheat the oven to 350°. Line a 9-inch square baking pan with parchment paper, giving about 2 inches of extra paper hanging over each side. This will help you lift out the brownies once they have cooled. Spray the paper with oil. 

In a small dry frying pan, toast the pecans lightly over medium heat. Let cool. Cook the bacon until crisp and let it drain on paper towels. Set aside 3 tbsp of the bacon fat.

In a small saucepan over low heat, melt the butter and chocolate together. Stir constantly so that it doesn't burn. Pour into a mixer bowl, add the white and brown sugar, bacon fat, and bourbon, and mix well. Beat in the eggs and salt until smooth. While the mixer is running, slowly add the cocoa and flour and scrape down the sides while the mixture blends until completely mixed.

Pour the batter into the pan, then sprinkle with the pecans and all but 1/4 cup of the bacon. Bake 45-50 minutes, until the brownies are firm at the edges but still a bit loose in the middle. Test by sticking a toothpick or cake tester into the center - it should come out with a bit of batter stuck to it.

Let the brownies cool on a wire rack. Cut into squares without cutting through the parchment paper, then lift out to serve. Serve topped with vanilla ice cream and a sprinkle of the reserved bacon bits.

Makes 9-12 brownies.