This recipe for Maple Bacon Chocolate Nut Cookie Bars won first place at Colorado State Fair. (Provided by Gold Medal Flour.)
Just the name of the recipe–Maple Bacon Chocolate Nut Cookie Bars–makes you hungry.
is one of those food trends that still reigns, and this recipe won Mike Milosavich a blue-ribbon and $200 winning for first-place in the 2015 Gold Medal Flour Cookie Contest at the .
“I was kind of tired of regular cookies, so I made this up,” said Milosavich, who lives in Pueblo with his wife, Laura.
“My wife likes to dip her bacon into maple syrup so I figured I’d make up a nut bar,” he said. “I used a lot of walnuts, and maple flavoring instead of vanilla.”
Itap been a stellar week for the couple. “Last night, we both won in the cinnamon rolls contest,” he said. “She won first and I won third.”
Milosavich really got into baking about 10 years ago, when he got a bread machine and started experimenting. He’s gotten a lot of inspiration from his wife, who excels in the culinary arts.
“She’s got bags of blue ribbons,” he said.
Here’s his recipe.
2015 Gold Medal Flour Cookie Contest
Mike Milosavich of Pueblo, 1st Place, 2015 Colorado State Fair
Maple Bacon Chocolate Nut Cookie Bars
1 cup Gold Medal All-Purpose Flour
2/3 cup sugar
1/2 cup cocoa
3/4 cup butter, cold-cut in small cubes
2 eggs, divided
1 (14 oz) can sweetened condensed milk
1 1/2 teaspoons maple flavoring
8 pieces crisp fried bacon, drained, cooled, crumbled
2 cups chopped walnut pieces
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. In food processor, pulse together flour, sugar, and cocoa. Cut in butter by pulsing until crumbly.
Remove from processor to mixing bowl. (As an alternate you can use a stand mixer or do by hand and add butter with a pastry blender.)
Beat one egg. Stir it into flour/butter mixture. Press mixture evenly onto bottom of lightly greased 12×9-inch baking pan. Bake 20 minutes.
Meanwhile, beat sweetened condensed milk, remaining egg and maple flavoring in medium bowl. Stir in walnut pieces. Pour over crust. Return to oven. Bake 17 minutes.
Remove from oven and top with crumbled bacon. Return to oven and cook 5 minutes longer or until golden. Cool. Cut into bars. Makes 24.
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