At WhiskeyBacon, we believe that you shouldn’t wait for a special day to tell the special folks in your life you appreciate them. Show and give love regularly, so folks know they are special… not just one day.
So, we’re not going to label this a Valentine’s day recipe, but if you choose to use our recipe for Valentine’s day, we won’t hold it against you! (but you’re going to want to make it more than once a year when you see how easy it is!)
I’ve been getting bacon roses memes for a while and finally decided to try my hand at them… but, of course, I had to up the ante! The addition of our Bourbon Caramel makes these roses beyond perfect. A slight crunch with salty, sweet chew of bacon, these bacon roses are all around beautiful and a perfect gift for every carnivore in your life!
Bourbon Caramel Tipped Bacon Roses Recipe
Ingredients
- 2 lbs thick cut bacon
- 1/4 Bourbon Caramel recipe
Hardware
The recipe is pretty simple, but the prep takes a little work the FIRST time you make them. After that, you’ll have all the pieces you need.
- Hammer
- Screwdriver
- Screw
- Mini Muffin Pan
- 4 bunches .99 fake roses from local box store
Direction
Begin by preheating your oven to 375.
Place a thick, folded towel on your cutting board and then your muffin pan on top. *Note: Go out and buy the CHEAPEST one of these you can. You’re destroying it, so please don’t use a $15 nice one. I tried to find an aluminum one, but failed often. This was $5 and I’m ok with $5 for a bacon rose pan!
Punch a hole into each of the muffin holders with the hammer and screw. Make sure it goes through cleanly. Then, go back and drive the screw through each hole to make it slightly larger. This is all so the fat from the bacon can drain out and not sit in the pan. This takes all of 15-20 minutes at most, but when done, you have the pan to repeat baking greaseless bacon forever!
Next, take your roses and remove the rosebud. Take the entire bud apart until all you have are the petals and the holder that fits on the stem.
Then place petal and holder back on stem and push down about an inch.
Now the hard part is done. Wash your pan out thoroughly, you don’t want any shavings to end up in your bacon buds.
Take your bacon strips and roll them tightly. I find if you rolled them and angle the roll so the fat edge is even and the meat edge isn’t, you got a better rosebud. Place each rolled slice of bacon in your muffin pan, fat edge down.
Now place a broiler pan or cooling rack and cookie sheet under your muffin pan, so the bacon fat doesn’t drip in the stove (and you can save the collected bacon fat to use in other dishes!)
Place bacon in oven and cook for 30-40 minutes. Check after 25 minutes to make sure your fat is draining and not pooling. Just give your pans a shake if they are. You don’t want them too crispy. I find that when the tops were crispy, the bottoms retain some chewiness and make for a perfect bacon bud.
When done, remove the buds from the pan and place on paper towel to drain and cool.
While the bacon cools, follow this recipe to make the bourbon caramel. I find with this, adding a little more water at the end kept the caramel from hardening too much on the bacon. When the caramel is done, CAREFULLY (you DON’T want to touch or get hot caramel on yourself…unless…you know, you’re into that and ummm…I mean, umm, be careful!) take your bacon buds and dip/twirl the tips in your pan of caramel. When they are all done, give them a few minutes to cool (you can even pop in the fridge for 3-5 minutes).
When done, slide each bacon bud onto a stems and adjust the petals. You want to make sure the bacon won’t come off, so get the stem to come just up to the top of the bud.
When your bouquet is completed, pop in a vase and viola! …or…or, in true whiskey bacon fashion, pop in a mason jar. And if you want to really show your affection, a mason jar full of whiskey and ice…you know, to simulate the water!
