Bacon Wrapped Bananas Dipped in Chocolate

Everyone seems to be obsessed with bacon these days, and for good reason. You can find bacon syrup, bacon chocolate bars, and bacon flavored mints, candies and snacks of all kinds.

But weird bacon snacks aren’t just for the grocery stores. You can make weird bacon concoctions of your own. Bacon is one of my favorite things to cook because it makes the house smell sooo good.

When I was in college, my roommate and I ate way more bacon than was probably anywhere remotely close to healthy. Pork products accounted for a large percentage of our grocery bill. One week, on a cooking show (I don’t remember which one), I saw something wonderful. I saw a competitor wrap bananas in bacon and throw them in the oven.

Though those bacon wrapped bananas did look good, those were not the wonderful thing I saw. What I saw was the potential they had. Instantly, I thought “Those would be delicious dipped in chocolate.” Once that thought had entered our heads, we knew that this had to be executed immediately. Otherwise, we would just dream about bacon and chocolate and we’d never do our homework again.

As can be expected, the “recipe” for this delightful snack is super easy. You take bananas and cut them into nice hearty chunks. I usually do about four slices. You cut your bacon into pieces that will wrap around the bananas- usually halves or thirds. I do halves because I want more bacon, obviously.

Wrap the bananas in the bacon and secure with a toothpick. Or try to conserve toothpicks and waste effort by trying to place the bacon seam perfectly on the tray so that it doesn’t unravel. Whatever you choose.

The first time we made them we just threw them on a baking tray (you can use any bakeware you like) and shoved them in an oven. 350 degrees for about 20 minutes on each side. While this turned out decently, I was not patient enough for the bacon to get quite as crispy as I like it. So the next time, we brushed the bacon with honey. That helped it caramelize a little more. You could use maple syrup to, or even butter, if you want to make this fatty little treat a little chubbier.

While the bacon bananas are roasting, take the chocolate of your choice and melt it. If you use honey, I would recommend dark chocolate, as I don’t like the saltiness of the bacon to be overwhelmed by too much sweet. There are about a million ways to melt chocolate. You can use the microwave, a double-boiler, or even a slow cooker. Heck, if you want to skip the melting altogether, you could just use chocolate syrup. If you’re melting though, do it right before you’re ready to serve, because you don’t want the chocolate to harden. You can always add a little milk to chocolate to keep it from seizing.

Once the bacon is browned, the bananas will be soft and gooey and ready to melt in your mouth. Wait at least a minute for them to cool (if you can), and then dip them in the warm chocolate and munch away. This is my favorite way to eat them, but you can also put the dipped treats on a plate or tray and freeze them for later enjoyment.