Fudgey Brownies with a Bacon Crumble

Okay, I know what you might be thinking....

WHAT?!  That sounds disgusting?!  Is she pregnant?!

But trust me, they are delicious and a nice change from the usual sweet overload of fudgey chocolate you get in a typical brownie! Below is the recipe I use, it has been modified from several recipes over the years I cannot tell you where the original came from....and well the bacon, that is just bacon!  As you can see in the picture below my family was skeptic about the idea, so I did half and half, and I promise the bacon ones were gone well before the original!

Ingredients:
Brownies:
- 3/4 Cup of Cocoa Powder
- 3/4 Cup of Butter Flavored Shortening
- 2 Cups of Sugar (lessen as desired)
- 4 Large Eggs
- 1 tsp. Vanilla Extract
- 1 1/4 Cup of Flour
- 1 tsp. Baking Powder
- 1 tsp. Salt

A chocolate ganache (link to recipe below)

Bacon crumbles (I prefer mine crispy!)


Pre-heat the oven to 350 degrees.
Grease a 9" by 13" pan.  Melt the shortening in a small sauce pan over medium low heat.  Stir in cocoa powder and remove from heat.  In mixer, mix together sugar and vanilla, then mix in cocoa mixture.  One at a time beat in eggs.  Finally mix in the remaining ingredients. **You may stir in nuts if you choose to do so at this point**
Pour into baking pan, and cook for approximately 30 mins.  Cool completely.

If you do not wish to have Ganache or bacon, you could just cut them and eat them by the handful at this point, buuuttttt, if you are feeling adventurous continue!

I used this recipe for the Ganache:
http://www.food.com/recipe/no-fail-way-easy-chocolate-ganache-17075

After pouring the ganache over the brownies, sprinkle your bacon crumbles, allow to cool, and cut into those babies!!  You totally earn the calories after making them!!