Me and my radio co-host, Steve Garner, broadcasting from the finals of the Bacon Recipe Contest for The Good Food Hour

Earlier this month my radio co-host, Steve Garner, and I hosted a Bacon Recipe Contest on our radio show, The Good Food Hour on KSRO in Sonoma County. We had some great entries, and did the difficult work of narrowing them down to four finalists. The contest was held November 3rd at G&G Supermarket in Santa Rosa, and one delicious winner emerged.

Bob Cronbach created two recipes that can be served separately, but served together, they earned him the Grand Prize! As a child, Bob was once crowned the “Junior Pancake King”, and says these recipes were

Bob Cronbach and me interacting during the Bacon Recipe Contest finals

inspired by his early cooking experiences and experiments. The Apple Bacon Fritter is versatile since it could be served plain as a snack, or dusted with powdered sugar or served with maple syrup and fruit, it could be served for breakfast. Serve it with his Maple Bacon Pecan Ice Cream, and you have a dessert that will really impress your holiday guests! There were a total of four winners chosen, and you can find all of their recipes on KSRO’s website.

All of the Bacon Recipe Contest Finalists with hosts- Laurie Figone, me, Marna Hill, Bob Cronbach, Steve Garner, and Olarn Tonverapongsiri

This was our 26th Recipe Cooking Contest and we’ve always had a great time with these.  I am sad to say this will be the last cooking contest we will host on KSRO, as the station recently cut our radio show and has replaced it with syndicated programming. I feel that local media programming is just as important as buying local produce and supporting local businesses. The Good Food Hour may re-emerge in another form, but in the meantime, you can always keep in touch with me here and on my Facebook page.

Hope you have a great Thanksgiving!

The winning dish!

Bacon Apple Fritter

Ingredients
4-5 Thick cut slices of Applewood Smoked Bacon
3 medium sized, firm apples
1 cup of Bisquick
1 teaspoon sugar
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 cup milk
¼ teaspoon vanilla
1 large egg
4 cups of oil, preferably peanut or corn

In a deep fryer or deep sauce pan, heat oil to 350 degrees

Method
Dice the bacon and cook over medium heat to crispy lardons. Remove with slotted spoon and place on paper towel to drain. Set aside to cool.

Peel, core and dice apples, approximately 1/3 inch. You should have about 4 cups.

Combine and mix all dry ingredients.

Whisk together the wet ingredients, then combine with dry ingredients. Stir bacon and apples into the batter. You want a thick batter, and you may need to add more Bisquick or milk as needed.

When oil is at right temperature, drop batter into the oil, 1 tablespoon at a time. Do not crowd. Brown one side, then turn. Remove to paper towels with slotted spoon to drain. Between batches, monitor oil temperature and adjust flame as needed.

Maple Bacon Pecan Ice Cream

Ingredients
1 cup grade B maple syrup
4 cups half & half
2 tablespoons strong, cold coffee or espresso
1 cup granulated sugar, divided
5 egg yolks
1/2 pound thick-cut bacon (about 6 slices)
¾ cup Pecans

Special equipment: candy thermometer, ice cream maker

Method
In a medium saucepan over moderate heat, reduce the maple syrup to 1/2 cup. Set aside.
Over moderate heat in a medium saucepan, heat the half-and-half and coffee with 1/2 cup sugar until hot and just bubbling around the edges.

In a medium bowl, whisk the yolks with 1/2 cup sugar, then add 1 cup hot half-and-half mixture in a slow stream, whisking constantly. Pour the whole egg mixture back into the saucepan and cook over medium heat, stirring constantly with a wooden spoon, until the mixture coats the back of the spoon and registers 170 degrees F on a thermometer. Do not let the mixture boil!

Pour the mixture through a fine mesh sieve into a medium bowl and whisk in the maple syrup. Cover with parchment paper letting the paper touch the surface of the mixture, to prevent a skin from forming. Chill the mixture until very cold, at least 6 hours and up to overnight.

Preheat the oven to 425 degrees.

Line a rimmed sheet pan with heavy foil. Place a baking rack over the lined sheet pan and arrange the bacon slices across the rack next to each other. Bake until crispy, about 15 minutes. When cool enough to handle, finely chop.

On the 2nd rimmed sheet pan, spread out pecans and bake with Bacon 6-10 minutes. Check at 5 minutes and shake pan to prevent burning and to get an even roast. When roasted, let cool, chop, and set aside.

Freeze the custard in an ice cream maker according to the manufacturer’s instructions, 20 to 30 minutes and at the last minute, add the pecans and bacon and let churn until just combined. Transfer to an airtight container and freeze.

Photo from Norwichnuts

Grunts are one of those great “Grandma” desserts that trace their history back to colonial times.  They are in the large family of cooked fruit desserts that include crisps, cobblers, betty’s, pandowdy’s, and slumps that are distinguished by cooking fruit in combination with some sort of crust (on top, on the bottom or both) or dumpling.

Although there is a great debate on what makes a “grunt”, the consensus seems to be that both grunts and slumps are simmered on top of the stove rather than baked in the oven like crisps, cobblers.  The most famous “slump” no doubt is the recipe for Apple Slump which Louisa May Alcott, author of Little Women, prepared in her home in Concord Massachusetts.  The fruit was cooked and then pieces of yeasted dough were placed on top. It was then covered and cooked until the dough was done.  The name Slump came from the fact that when spooned out onto the plate it “slumped” and had no recognizable shape. Grunts are very similar.  They usually are made with berries and topped with a baking powder dumpling.  The name supposedly comes from the sound the berries make as they simmer in the pot!

My favorite Grunt is one my Grandmother made using blackberries.  She would make it in the summer when the wild berries were plentiful.  However you can make and enjoy this year round since most markets carry frozen IQF (individually quick frozen without sugar) berries.  These are often better than fresh in most markets because they are picked and frozen when they are fully ripe and at the peak of flavor.  The price is usually very good too.  Too often the fresh berries we see have been picked under-ripe so that they’ll travel better.  Blueberries make a nice alternative here.

BLACKBERRY GRUNT
Serves 6 – 8

For the berries:
8 cups fresh or IQF (individually quick frozen) blackberries
3/4 cup sugar (or to taste)
1/2 cup red wine or water
1 tablespoon finely grated lemon zest

For the dumpling dough:
1 cup all-purpose flour
2 tablespoons sugar
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/8 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted
2/3 cup buttermilk (or a mixture of plain yogurt and skim milk or water), plus more to make a soft dough
2 tablespoons sugar mixed with 1 teaspoon cinnamon

Topping:
Whipped cream, vanilla ice cream or sweetened yogurt

Method:

Place the berry mixture in a heavy, deep casserole and bring to a simmer over moderate heat.

While berries are cooking make the dumpling dough by stirring together the flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda and salt in a mixing bowl.  Stir in the melted butter.  Add enough of the buttermilk to form a soft dough. For reference it should be wetter than a biscuit dough.

Using a soup spoon, place heaping spoonfuls of the dumpling dough on top the fruit.  Make sure you have at least one per person.  Sprinkle the dumplings with the cinnamon sugar.  Tightly cover with a lid or a sheet of foil and cook the mixture over medium-low heat so that the fruit just barely simmers. Keep covered until the dumplings are puffed and set and the surface is firm when touched with a fingertip.  This will take about 12 minutes or so.

To serve:  Spoon the warm grunt into serving bowls and spoon on whipped cream, ice cream or sweetened yogurt.

Wine Recommendation:  Although I usually think desserts are best served without wine because of the problem of balancing the sugars in the wine and the dessert.  If the dessert is sweeter than the wine then the wine will taste thin and acidic.  However, the not-too-sweet ripe berry flavor here could be a nice match with a ruby style port.  In California a number of producers are making nice port-like wines (true Port comes from Portugal) from grapes like Black Muscat, Zinfandel and Petite Sirah that I’d love with this dessert.