Empirical Baker

Warning: If you are a cardiologist, into healthy eating, dislike bacon and beef, and/or care about your heart being damaged reading about something Really Unhealthy, please do not go further.

A few months ago, while watching television, we kept seeing the commercial for Friendly’s “Grilled Cheese Burgermelt”. I live in Brooklyn, and the closest Friendly’s is in Staten Island. As a non driver, the Friendly’s in Staten Island is hours away, and thus we could not go.

Yet, we wanted this burger. It was a cheeseburger with grilled cheese sandwiches for buns. An unholy awesomeness of cheese, bread, and meat. We vowed that we would make this monstrosity, someday.

I was relating this story to Matt of Robicelli’s fame, and he mentioned bacon. Grilled Bacon and Cheese Sandwiches, and bacon on the burger.

Must. Have.

Bacon Grilled Cheese Bacon Cheeseburger
Aka: “Burger of Awesomeness”

Makes 4(ish)

Ingredients:
One pound of Thick Cut Bacon
One Pound of Mozzarella, Sliced
One Loaf of White Bread
4-8 Hamburger Patties (depending on if you want single or double patties)

Cook Bacon.

I did half of the bacon in a 400 degree oven for 25 minutes, and it was very crispy, just how I like it. We did the other half on the stove for a less crispy texture.

Be sure to save the grease!

Using some of the bacon grease, cook hamburger patties. I suppose you can do it on a grill, but we live in the city, and thus are only allowed to cook on a stove.

Make the Bacon Grilled Cheese Sandwiches. For four sandwiches, you need Eight grilled cheese sandwiches, which is 16 slices of bread. With half a pound of cheese, this allowed each grilled cheese sandwich to have one slice of cheese, and each burger to have one slice. I buttered the outside of each bread, put one slice of cheese and one slice of bacon inside, and cover with another piece of buttered bread. Ten minutes on the bottom rack of the oven, flipping at five minutes, and we had nice grilled cheese.

To Assemble:
Place Bacon Grilled Cheese Sandwich on a plate. Top with cheese if you have it (we ran out, so these are a 1/4th slice)

Top with Hamburger Patty.

Top with Bacon and Cheese.

For a double decker, add another hamburger patty.

Top with Cheese and the second Bacon Grilled Cheese Sandwich.

Admire. Eat. Debate the damage being done to your arteries, and think about taking an Aspirin. My friend said “I can feel the chest pain after a bite.”

Directly after winning something at the Brooklyn Brownie Bake off, and winning a copy of Baked Explorations: Classic American Desserts Reinvented, my friend Emily pointed me towards Baked Sunday Mornings, in which we bake recipes from the book and post them on Sunday mornings.

As you can see, I am late.

I was not able to do the first date, as, I, ahem, ate all my nutella. I am jumping in with the second event, Sweet and Salty Brownies.

If I had read this recipe before entering the bake off, I may have altered my recipe. Reading this recipe, and the description of the winning recipe from the event, these brownies are basically solid chocolate, with a little sugar, eggs, and flour.

There is twice as much chocolate as flour in the recipe. There is slightly more chocolate than sugar. Basically, you take solid chocolate, melt it with butter, add some sugar, flour, and eggs, and bake.

And, as much as I love the idea, I did not like the brownies.

There are two warring factions of brownie eaters. There are the fudgy brownies, those that like brownies almost like fudge, heavy, full of chocolate, and dense. There are cakey brownies, which are like denser cakes, but still lighter and fluffier than fudge. I fall into the latter category, as well as having grown up with this type of brownie.

I loved the idea of the combination of salty caramel sauce and sea salt on the top of the brownies, but I feel that, at least in my execution, the combination of flavors never came out. Knowing me, I would drown the brownies with caramel over the brownies, which I may do next time. Part of my disappointment was that the caramel drizzled in the middle seeps into the bottom of the brownies, which eliminated that from a separate flavor component. It also means I now have some chocolate caked to the bottom of the cake pan. (Parchment? You mean, actually following the directions on how to prepare the pan? Um, no :)

I have learned that I firmly fall into the “cakey” brownie category. I also learned that I probably should not keep homemade caramel sauce around, because I learned that it is far to easy to eat with a spoon. Or without a spoon. Whatever :)