Secret Recipe Club: Ewwy Cashewy Chocolate Bark

Ewwy, cashewy, bacon bark

Secret Recipe Club is back, baby!

Don't worry, I'm not posting late for Secret Recipe Club, I just switch groups from B to D. Group B posted the same week as Daring Cooks and I found myself unable to complete both. When the opportunity presented itself, I opted to leave group B and try out D. And I'm very pleased with that decision. Want to join in the Secret Recipe Club fun where we cook, bake, blog and share? Head on over to the Secret Recipe Club!

Changing groups also meant I got the opportunity to feature a blog this week that I'd never been to before: Kudos Kitchen by Renee. Renee is talented both in the kitchen and with a paint brush. I highly recommend that you check out her recipes and her Etsy shop!

For this month, I needed to pick a portable dish. By the time this post goes live, I'll be flying back from San Diego where Bender and I got to hang out with California Girl and Scuba Guy. It's been 11 months since we've seen them and I've forced my food down their throats, so I needed to make something I thought they would enjoy and could be able to fly more than halfway across the country. I opted for candy. With bacon. Because everything is better with bacon!

Special dark chocolate + cashews. Yum!

Ewwy Cashewy Bacon Bark

minimally adapted from Kudos Kitchen by Renee

Ingredients:

2 cups (1 package) special dark morsels
1 cup (½ package) white chocolate morsels
1 pound bacon, cooked and crumbled
1 cup (~5.5 ounces) cashews, chopped

Directions:

1. Cook your bacon until crisp and drain on several layers of paper towels.
2. Chop your cashews making sure not to cut them too small.
3. Melt your chocolates in a microwave safe dish in the microwave on medium power. Check and stir every 30 seconds and remove when just melted. (You'll start seeing some melting action around the one minute mark.)
4. Stir the cashews into the special dark melted chocolate and pour out onto a parchment lined cookie sheet. Top the special dark cashew mixture with the white chocolate.
5. With a spoon or knife, work the two chocolates together while thinning and spreading them into a rectangle shape on the parchment paper.
6. Top the chocolate mixture evenly with your cooked and crumbled bacon. Chill in the fridge until set. Break into pieces and serve to your unsuspecting guests.

White chocolate swirl

THOUGHTS:

While this recipe is crazy easy to make, I have microwave issues. As in, I like to hit one button and be done with it. I love the thirty second start button. I never go through the effort to punch in the actual time unless I absolutely have to. And to change the power level on my microwave, you absolutely have to. That annoyed me. I almost would have preferred to melt the chocolates over the stove in a double boiler. But that's just me an my quirks. It wasn't an issue with the recipe. :)

In my insanity, I overcooked the bacon. Which is hilarious because I'd been talking to Tabitha about how I'd perfected cooking bacon in the oven. I didn't space my bacon apart, which meant it did not cook as evenly and perfectly. Oops. I over-compensated by sticking it back in the oven and this time it got a little too crispy. I salvaged the pieces I could, but that meant only putting bacon on one half of the chocolate. I justified that by telling myself Bender wouldn't be willing to try the bacon chocolate anyway. :)

VERDICT:

Yum!-I-just-don't-recommend-sitting-on-it: 1 vote!

Bacon+Chocolate=Good: 1 vote!

I-was-wrong-bacon-is-good-with-chocolate: 1 vote!

Hey-not-bad: 1 vote!

Portable chocolaty goodness