Bacon Amazingness

My BFF (which oddly enough is the same person who is counting calories that prompted me to math out the calories of the oreo truffles) told me about these things called bacon turtles and I was appalled that I'd never heard of them before. I only learned of them because I had shared my excitement over having managed to smuggle bacon into the house (this is a big deal, bacon doesn't last long around here, it doesn't get eaten so much as inhaled or devoured and generally you have to fight for it). The smuggled bacon was simply going to be fried up and enjoyed however this new idea had me smelling bacon everywhere I turned, not to mention the "did you make them yet??!?!" from my BFF every time I brought up having made something or having had a craving for bacon, this went on for a couple days or so and today I finally went through with it. so here they are, The Bacon Amazing-ness-es (not turtles because hot-dogs are apparently also a hot commodity around the house and I'm all out)

Yeah, I know my bacon is really fatty.. and it doesn't look completely done but thats because I plan on actually sharing them (I know, right?) and they will need to be heated later so I figure they'll just go back into the oven for 10mins when its time. But, here is all you really need:

You can use any lean ground meat, I used some of the deer burger we have taking over the freezer, and you can use any cheese you like, most people like cheddar it appears from sifting through the internet but I used mozzarella because I like the stringy-ness of it. Of course you'll also need bacon..

I started by rinsing the icky off the bacon, I'm sorry I just don't like the way raw meat feels before its been rinsed good. I'm sure this is optional. 

Begin making your bacon fabric that will encase the rest of the yumminess

Continue until you have a big square of bacon weave... Oh My God! are your taste buds screaming yet?

This is how much leftover bacon I had... four slices.

Take your ground meat of choice out of the packaging

Make fairly thin patty type shapes(4)

This broke my heart, but cut the bacon weave into two pieces

Place a patty on each, like so

Top with your cheese of choice

Again top with ground meat patty

Fold bacon weave over stacked patties and try to configure the ends so that they stay together

I used toothpicks soaked in water to kind of pin them together because I wanted to ensure a good hold

This is the other one..

I put them on foil in a shallow metal baking dish to keep the bacon and burger juice from getting all over the oven, if you have a grate of some kind to keep them up out of the juices and help them drain I recommend it, I haven't found mine yet from the move.. it may have been lost/given away, who knows. But put them in at 400F for 30-40min I put them in for 30 expecting 10min reheat/finishing prior to enjoyment

 This was about halfway through baking

Here they are shortly before coming out

And they're done. Look at all that burger/bacon juice/goo oozing out like a mudslide.. if that doesn't make your arteries cry nothing will =]

They're beautiful. Pull out the toothpicks and enjoy, I only plan on serving these two Bacon Amazing-ness-es to four people so everyone gets a half. I hope you give these a try and I hope if you've never heard of them you will be as excited about them as I was and that you will enlighten someone else as well =]

Happy Baking!

Enjoy! =]