Low carb dark chocolate bark filled with sugar-free candied pecans and bacon. A sweet-salty treat! This post is sponsored by Smithfield.
Ask yourself this: how much do you love bacon? How important is bacon in your life? Is it a vital need for you, or are you happy munching on a few strips at brunch every few months? Do you dream about bacon? Do you go woozy at the faintest whiff of frying bacon? Do you have arguments with your friends over the proper way to cook up a rasher?
And do you feel bacon is more important that Valentine’s Day?
If you said yes to that last question, you are not alone. Not by a long shot. Because according to a national survey run by Smithfield, 60% of Americans love bacon more than Valentine’s Day. I readily admit, I fall firmly into that camp myself. I mean, really, do you even need to ask? Valentine’s Day comes but once a year. Bacon is a much more frequent companion than that!
Smithfield also found that 41% of Americans would prefer bacon over a bouquet of roses. But if you’ve seen those bacon roses that are all over the interwebs, you know you don’t have to compromise.
They found that 78% of Americans agree that bacon makes everything better. Well….d’uh! No need to run a national survey, I could have told you that!
And a rather scary statistic, they found that 4 out of 10 in the Millenial generation would prefer to see bacon over their significant other at the breakfast table. Okay, I love bacon but if I had to choose, I’d pick my husband at the breakfast table. And then I’d meet bacon at lunch and dinner instead.
In addition to all this hard-hitting bacon research, they kindly sent me 3 varieties of their thick-cut bacon. Regular, applewood smoked and cherrywood smoked. And they asked that I pick my favourite. Now that’s just plain mean! I loved them all. That’s like asking me to choose which of my children is my favourite. I did manage to keep enough of it out of the hands of my bacon-loving offspring to actual make a recipe.
Notice how the Smithfield Survey didn’t ask if people if they liked bacon more than chocolate? That would be a tough one. Fortunately with this recipe, you don’t have to decide. I know some people are still on the fence about bacon in sweets but give this a try. It’s a modification of my Dark Chocolate Sea Salt Almond Bark and it’s really, REALLY good. The bacon and the pecans get candied together and oh my! On their own, they taste like caramel corn. You could eat it just as is. Or you could make some really good sugar-free chocolate and either spread it out for bark, or make little clusters in a mini-muffin tin. I did both, just for fun.
- 1/2 cup Swerve Sweetener
- 2 tbsp water
- 1 tbsp butter
- 1 ½ cups chopped toasted pecans
- 1/2 lb bacon chopped and cooked until crisp
- 1/4 tsp kosher salt
- 4 oz food grade cocoa butter
- 2.5 oz good quality unsweetened chocolate
- 1/2 cup powdered Swerve Sweetener sifted
- 3/4 cup cocoa powder
- 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
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Line a large baking sheet with parchment paper. Line a 9x13 inch pan with another piece of parchment.
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In a medium saucepan over medium heat, combine Swerve and water, stirring occasionally. Bring to a boil and cook until mixture darkens, about 7 to 9 minutes. Mixture will smoke slightly; this is normal.
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Remove from heat and whisk in butter. Add chopped pecans and bacon and stir quickly to coat, then stir in sea salt.
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Spread pecan mixture out on parchment-lined large baking sheet and let cool. Break up any clumps.
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In a heavy saucepan over low heat, melt cocoa butter and chocolate together until smooth.
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Stir in sifted powdered Swerve, then stir in cocoa powder, until smooth.
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Remove from heat and stir in vanilla extract.
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Stir pecan/bacon mixture into chocolate. Spread mixture evenly into prepared 9x13 inch pan. Alternatively, you can make clusters by spooning mixture into mini-muffin cups lined with parchment or foil mini-cupcake liners. You can also spoon mixture into various candy molds.
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Chill until set, at least 1 hour. Break into chunks for the bark.
Serves approx. 20. Each serving has 4 g of carbs and 2 g of fiber. Total NET CARBS = 2 g.
201 Calories; 20g Fat (82.5% calories from fat); 5g Protein; 4g Carbohydrate; 2g Dietary Fiber; 11mg Cholesterol; 215mg Sodium.
Della says
Great Recipe! Can’t wait to try it. Thought you might find this interesting, see link below. Smithfield is is owned by China as of last Sept. Interesting read…
http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/world/2013/09/26/china-pigs-smithfield-buyout/2870505/
Laura says
OMG Sounds so good!! I want to make it NOW but I don’t know where to get cocoa butter. Where do you get yours?
Carolyn says
I get mine on Amazon. Swing by the Facebook page on Friday, I am going to do a giveaway on there for all the ingredients to make my homemade chocolate!
Here’s the link for the kind I like: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B009XEANGU/ref=as_li_tf_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=B009XEANGU&linkCode=as2&tag=aldaidrabfo05-20
Laura says
Or can I use coconut oil instead??
Carolyn says
You could, but it’s going to be a LOT more melty and will require constant refrigeration. Will still taste really good, though!
Lorri says
I keep mine in the fridge.
Lorri says
I made this. Followed the recipe; however, I also added about 3/4 cup of coconut oil. YUMMY
Jocelyn (Grandbaby Cakes) says
This bark looks absolutely fantastic!
Jocelyn (Grandbaby Cakes) says
Oh yeah phenom!
Dorothy @ Crazy for Crust says
I am in LOVE with this recipe. Bacon + anything = fab.
[email protected] says
This looks amazing and over the top with the crispy bacon, doesn’t get much better! Kudos Carolyn!
Barb says
I don’t like bacon much – I only cook up two pounds at a time, in the special covered microwave tray WalMart sells. I keep the cooked stuff in the fridge as snacks, for breakfast, for lunch, and sometimes even for dinner. So now I get to cover the whole spectrum and have it for dessert, too! Awesome, can’t wait to try this!
Making good progress on my diet, too, down 49 lbs since Oct! So these will be rewards! Thanks!
Carolyn says
Yeah, I am not that much of a bacon fan either…. 😉 Congrats on all the weight loss!
sarah says
What is the best way to measure the cocoa butter? Do you chop it up and put it in a measuring cup for melt it first? Thank you!
Carolyn says
A kitchen scale works best. Depending on the brand, it can come in one huge lump, in which case you do need to chop some off, or in smaller pieces. Then I put a bowl on my kitchen scale and zero it down and then measure out however many ounces I need.
Lorri says
I just estimated it. How can you go wrong? This recipe is amazing.
RavieNomNoms says
Holy heaven! That looks amazing!
Sarah max says
Shoot! I really need to get a kitchen scale. I’m just going to have to wing it tonight. Wish me luck! 🙂
Brenda says
I made this yesterday – oh, wow – I think it’s addictive!
Lorri says
I make my own “healthy” low carb chocolate all the time! Love the healthy fats. This is truly one of the best I have ever tried! Thank you so much for the recipe.
Rikke says
This looks delish! Could I use more sugar free chocolate – or does this need the cocoa butter and cocoa powder to work? I hate to wait till I can shop for cocoa butter before trying =)
Alison says
Am I reading the recipe correctly? Is it 2 TBSP of water? My mixture keeps going try and coating the bottom of my pan before it even boils
Carolyn says
Yes, it’s two tbsp water. I wonder if your heat is too high? Are you on gas or electric?
Elaine Markley says
This looks delicious! I wonder how it would work without make the candied part and just use roasted pecans and bacon?
Carolyn says
It would work just fine…it would just be a little less sweet.
Erica says
I don’t know what I did wrong but when I added the bacon/pecan mixture to the chocolate mixture it became really powdery. I ended up making it into bars but they crumble apart. It tastes really good just not sure where I went wrong. For the swerve in the bacon mixture I used granulated and the chocolate mixture I used the confectioners swerve. Was that correct?
Carolyn says
It sounds like your chocolate seized. Not sure why but it just happens sometimes, especially if you have your heat too high or you use lower quality chocolate.
Erica says
Ok thank you! Can I ask what chocolate you normally use in it?
Carolyn says
Ghirardelli 100%
SCOTT CHRISTIANSEN says
What constitutes a serving? Or, how many servings in the batch?
Carolyn says
It tells you right in the recipe notes how many it serves.
Angela says
Hi Carolyn , I love your blog!! Thank you for all the time you spend creating these amazing recipes! I want to make this and was wondering if lilys chocolate chips would work for the chocolate?
Carolyn says
Yes in this recipe, you can just melt the chips with a little coconut oil or cocoa butter.
Cherie Curtis says
My three favorite things to eat: bacon, peanuts and dark chocolate. Excellent recipe, wonderful treat! Thank you Carolyn for all you do. Your recipes are always on point.
Cherie Curtis says
I love this recipe! I’v made it several times. This week, my husband requested chopped peanuts instead of pecans. I tried it, it was good , he loved it, but as for me, I much prefer the original that also has less carbs and calories. Carolyn, you’re the best!