One Savory Ingredient Addition Is The Secret To Next-Level Brownies

If you love a good sweet-savory combination, you need to know about the ingredient that can take your homemade brownies to the next level: bacon. The combination may seem a little odd at first, but chocolate-covered bacon is a tasty treat amongst fans of the crispy meat. Bacon is also known to enhance the flavor of chocolate.

If you're intrigued by the idea, you'll be happy to know that the process is quite simple. Start by cooking the bacon — if you cook the bacon in the oven, you can begin preparing the brownie batter at the same time (since the bacon will need to cool, start the brownies toward the end of the bacon's time in the oven). When the bacon is finished and cooled, chop it into small pieces — the exact size is up to you.

For the brownie batter, you can work with any brownie recipe of your choosing — perhaps Tasting Table's ultimate fudgy brownies — and follow the instructions as normal. When the brownie batter is thoroughly mixed, fold in the bacon pieces. After transferring the brownie batter to the baking dish, you can top the batter with more bacon pieces for an extra bacon-y experience.

One way to switch up the bacon brownie idea is to use candied bacon to add a bit more sweetness to the dessert, without forgoing the taste of bacon — this may be a good idea for anyone who is a little more skeptical about adding bacon to brownies. Candied bacon is essentially just bacon that has been sweetened up with sugar — to make it, simply sprinkle a generous helping of brown sugar (which will caramelize better than white sugar) before cooking in the oven. Maybe you use regular bacon to fold into the batter then use the candied bacon for the topping.

Additionally, feel free to get creative with the brownie flavors — perhaps add bacon to chocolate banana brownies instead of traditional brownies. Or, you can take it a step further and add a swirl of peanut butter into the banana brownies, complete with bacon pieces mixed in, to make the dessert inspired by Elvis Presley's favorite sandwich. You can also experiment with adding bacon to butterscotch brownies or raspberry brownies to see which unique flavor combinations you like.

Finally, since you already have the sweet and savory components covered, maybe you want to take the bacon brownies to the next level by adding a spicy component. To make brownies with a kick of spice, add in 1/4 to 1/2 teaspoon of cayenne pepper and 1/2 teaspoon of cinnamon, then add in the bacon pieces to complete the trifecta of sweet, spicy, and savory.