I swear that I intended to write about more than just bacon apple pie when I set up this blog. I currently have three unfinished drafts about sushi, copyright law and what I like to call the Starving College Student Diet (the reason I can eat so much bacon and still lose weight). But bacon always seems to win out.
As I write this, my sixth bacon apple pie of 2007 is sitting on a cooling rack in my mother’s kitchen, waiting for its Christmas dinner debut. I was able to convince the family that I wasn’t completely crazy after showing them the empty pie plate left over from the HSU 2007 Printmaking Show reception. The grandparents are still a little hesitant to incorporate the bacon apple pie into the ancestral recipe box next to the cioppino and stollen bread, but they did ask for a slice of bacony goodness to take home and try in private. The bacon will out!
So in the spirit of the New Year, I am renaming Eclectic I/O to Bacon Blog until such time that I find something better than bacon to blog about. (Fat chance, that!) Furthermore, my New Year’s resolution for 2008 will be to go out and make contact with the other bacon messiahs crying out in the wilderness of the interblags.
I want the bacon apple pie to reach the farthest ends of the earth. I want all bacon eaters (and soy bacon eaters!) to try it out and have their own decadent bacon experience. I want the French Laundry to serve bacon apple pie. I want to try bacon apple pie with Roquefort cheese someday. I want to see bacon brought out of the darkness of the fatty food stigma into the light of American haute cuisine. I want to see bacon eaten with the pride and relish it deserves.
Bookmark on del.icio.us No pictures this time (*snif*), but it looks like one of my fellow food pornstars improved on the bacon apple pie recipe by adding a crumbly cheddar cheese crust. Bacon apple pie is also apparently damned tasty with a sprinkling of black and cayenne pepper.
Bookmark on del.icio.us I posted the recipe for the Bacon Apple Pie nearly a month ago, and apparently it’s taken off!
From the Food Porn community on Livejournal where I reposted it, the bacon apple pie received accolades from dozens of posters who assured me that I was doing God’s work. But that’s not all: from food_porn, some anonymous reader made their own bacon apple pie and posted it to 4chan of all places. I’m sorry to say it was gone by the time I got wind of it, but the bacon apple pie was immediately picked up by some neat blogs I never knew existed!
Supersized Meals.com (no relation to the movie, apparently) posted this neat set of photos of a different bacon apple pie.
The J-Walk Blog posted the same photo as the above blog. A commenter suggested putting vodka in the crust of the bacon apple pie, while another suggested using some bacon grease in the crust to keep it from getting stiff.
And Papa Mike’s Blog simply calls it the Hottest Recipe on the Internet!
I’m so proud to have made so many bacon lovers happy. I can’t wait to make the bacon apple pie again with some of the tips people are posting.
But you know, there are so many other potential bacon applications that are worth exploring to the fullest. The Bacon-Albacore sushi roll, for example…
*sigh*
May all your bacon dreams come true.
Bookmark on del.icio.us My love affair with bacon is well-documented in my artwork. Living la vida loca of the Starving Art Student leads one to seek ever cheaper substitutes for proper nutrition. The local Cash & Carry willingly obliges by selling 15-lb flats of bacon for $0.87 a pound, making it the cheapest meat available in the region. Despite much eye-rolling and finger-shaking by my peers that I’d suffer eighty-seven heart attacks in a year with all the bacon I eat, I’ve actually lost ten pounds and my cholesterol is so depressingly normal that it’s too boring to write about. Meanwhile, my neighbors have dubbed my dwelling-place The House That Bacon Built.
I joked last spring when printing my drypoint engraving All Day I Dream About Bacon that I was going to put bacon on an apple pie. No one believed me.
Until last Saturday, that is, when I marched to the Arcata Farmer’s Market in search of Gravenstein apples…
Gravenstein apples are tart and crisp, ideal for pies and snacking. These Gravensteins came from a farm in Willow Creek, California, less than 100 miles away. Eating local food is a smart choice at any time of year, but September is also Local Foods Month in Humboldt County. What better way to celebrate than with a pie?
My main concern with this pie was that the bacon would make the apple pie too greasy. To avoid this, I fried the bacon first and then crumbled it to manageable portions. I then lined the pie crust with bacon pieces, and mixed the rest in with the apples. Yes, there’s a recipe at the bottom.
From there it was just a matter of laying out the top crust and engaging in a bit of arts and crafts…
And into the oven it went.
So how was it?
I wouldn’t be posting this if it wasn’t absolutely incredible. It wasn’t greasy like I thought it would be. The flavor was a perfect balance of sweet and salty. I served it up with slices of smoked cheddar cheese for a room full of amused but open-minded skeptics, and the entire pie was gone in 10 minutes.
Now, for the open-source entertainment. Try this out and tell me how you liked it. Improve on it if you can! Share this recipe with others. The information wants to be free!
Bacon Apple Pie
Ingredients:
Directions:
Fry bacon in skillet until slightly floppy. Drain on paper towel. Chop bacon into 1/2″ pieces. Line bottom of pastry-lined pie plate with a layer of bacon, reserving the rest.
In a large bowl, mix together 3/4 cup sugar, flour, cinnamon, and nutmeg. Add apple slices and remaining bacon pieces. Toss to coat.
Transfer bacon-apple mixture to pastry-lined pie plate. Place upper crust on pie plate (bonus points for a lattice, double bonus points if you can show me a bacon lattice!) and seal. Cut slits in the top if you are using double crust to allow to vent. Brush top with milk and sugar. Bake at 375 F for 1 hour or until bubbly.
Cool on a wire rack. Serve with smoked cheddar cheese slices.
Bookmark on del.icio.us Those of you who remember my original attempt at web design (the late and lamented Conspiracy Productions) may wonder what madness drove me to try launching a new site.
Well, I’m older now, and possibly wiser, at least in the ways of web design. After all, I do it for a living for other people (when I’m not busy attending school to better myself in a discipline even worthier than computer science); common sense dictates I should be able to draw up a website that isn’t totally embarrassing to show to others.
By way of (re)introduction, I am Harlequin, aka the Eclectic Gecko. My birth name is floating around here somewhere. I collect names, see. I’ve got a lot of other interests as well, hence the title “eclectic.” It’s hard to say which of them will pop up in this blog, but it’s a fair guess to say that good food, interesting art, and nerd culture will be popular subjects.
If you haven’t already, please visit my main site, Eclectic Gecko Designs.
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