Apparently, No Name Premium Meats, who supplied the bacon, sent Conan a 200-pound bust of himself made entirely out of white chocolate and bacon.

O’Brien had made a comment during an interview back in June that he would visit the Minnesota State Fair if he could get his body weight in chocolate covered bacon, which the Fair claims is a specialty of theirs. Something tells me Conan may have been looking more for something like this! O’Brien didn’t make it to the fair after all, the Minnesotans are determined to get him there next year.

Sculptor Linda Christensen labored over a 300-pound chunk of white chocolate for a full week before it was sent to O’Brien in California. No Name won’t disclose how much the whole thing cost, but says it was worth every penny.

[image: zuma press]

Post from: Chocolate Bytes

It’s simple enough: I put regular sliced bacon (some people recommend thick slices, but I didn’t have it on hand. The thin worked out just as well) in my Foreman grill, melted some chocolate chips in the microwave (admittedly, I used plain old Nestle chips instead of my good Ghirardelli chips, just in case), and then laid the cooled bacon in the chocolate and spooned it over before setting it on parchment paper. That’s it.

My kids were wary about what I was doing, especially when they saw the bacon come out of the fridge. One of my nine-year-olds got into the fun by helping me drain the bacon, and my ten-year-old enjoyed stirring the chocolate chips when they’d come out of the microwave.

Now, we tried the Vosges bacon chocolate bar last year and were not impressed. So, I was a little worried that I was wasting some perfectly good bacon and chocolate.

The verdict? I’m glad I didn’t use the 60% Cacao chips from Ghirardelli, but not because they would have been wasted. The semi-sweet Nestle chips were perfect – not overpowering but still chocolaty, which let the salty bacon come through. I didn’t use “flavored” bacon – no apple smoked or maple or anything, just plain bacon.

The kids that were giving me the stink eye just minutes before when I told them what I was up to were happily dipping their own little leftover pieces of bacon into the chocolate bowl as we waited for the “dipped” bacon to set up in the fridge.

Like I said, I thought I would end up disliking it as much as I disliked the candy bar from last year, but, and I’m a little ashamed to admit this, they were actually pretty darn good. I can’t see making these often, for obvious reasons, but it was a fun distraction this afternoon and the kids got a kick out of how good the two completely different tastes went together, which would have been it worth it even if they didn’t turn out.

Have you tried chocolate covered bacon? What did you think?

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It’s currently lunchtime, meaning it’s dangerous to be looking at pictures of Chocolate Bacon Cheeseburgers, given my experience with chocolate and bacon.

The above burger is called the Brooklynite and was created by Epic Nomz. It’s basically a burger with the cheese on the inside, and chocolate-coated bacon placed on top of the burger. Since the burger is still warm when the bacon is put on top, the chocolate slowly melts and spreads around.

With the bacon being fresh (as opposed to dehydrated and Bacon Bits-y), I think it sounds fantastic! Would you try this?

Oh, and it’s National Cheeseburger Day! Yay!

[image: flickr]

Post from: Chocolate Bytes

I’m not sure how long the Vosges brand Mo’s Bacon Bar has been available, but when I first heard about it last year I knew I had to keep an eye out. The bar is said to have been an inspiration of chocolatier Katrina Markoff, who drew on her childhood experience of chocolate chip pancakes and bacon.

I was really interested to see how this would be pulled off. Bacon is yummy, chocolate is yummy, but together?

I found a bar at Cost Plus not too long ago and picked it up for about $6. A hefty price tag for 3oz of chocolate!

The bar is wrapped inside a foil pouch and packaged in a thin cardboard box. There isn’t much of a scent when the pouch is first opened, though there is a slight smokey smell if you get up close enough.

I had my bar in the fridge for about half an hour before I opened to make sure it didn’t melt all over me. It was slightly above room temperature when I opened it up and had a satisfying snap when I broke a square off.

That was about where anything good ended. Well, that’s not entirely true – the chocolate was smooth except for the bits of bacon throughout. And granted, there wasn’t a lot of bacon. But the “applewood smoked bacon” just did not work for me. It was really disappointing because I wanted to like this, but I could barely get through the one corner I bit off. I gave it a minute to get over it, thinking maybe it was just because I wasn’t used to bacon and chocolate and I’d be more receptive after a second bite. No go. In fact, that one went into a paper towel.

Overall, the smokey bacon flavor was just way too overpowering. The chocolate tried to poke through but failed miserably, and – even though my package said it’s good until next January – the bacon tasted stale and old and was so much a part of the chocolate that I can’t even say the chocolate was any good.

Post from: Chocolate Bytes