DISCLAIMER: Be sure to warn the occupants of your home this bacon is NOT for them to eat until it is *inside* this fabulous recipe for Maple Bacon Pecan Bread. Otherwise your fiance may mistake you for cooking breakfast for him and be terribly disappointed (well... until this bad boy gets out of the oven). He is now content after a couple of slices and has already placed some in a ziplock bag to bring to his overnight shift as a snack #winning

As you can tell by the title, there's a lot of flavor going on here but DON'T WORRY, it will all come together amazing! You can certainly taste the maple syrup but this is by no means overpowering or super sweet. I'm just loving the delicate balance of salty/sweet/nuttiness of this loaf and can't wait to enjoy another piece with my coffee in the morning!

Enjoy baking this loaf, I hope you love it!

Step 1: So... What Would You Say, You Need Here?

Ingredients:

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon baking powder

3/4 cup butter (1 1/2 sticks)

6 tablespoons sugar

1 cup pecans, roughly chopped (+ some extra to sprinkle on top)

1 cup of cooked bacon broken or chopped into small pieces (+ some extra to sprinkle on top)

3 eggs

1 tablespoon Almond milk (or regular dairy milk if you're into that)

zest from 1 lemon

5 tablespoons of maple syrup (any kind will do!)

Tools:

Frying pan: Bacon

Separate Mixing Bowls for Wet & Dry Ingredients

9 x 5 Bread Loaf Pan

Sifter of sorts

Measuring Utensils

Spatula (to help get the bread out)

Step 2: Fry That B.A.C.O.N

Before you can make the bread - fry.that.bacon (do not overcook... remember this will be going in the oven for 50 minutes) and then rip/crumble it up into bite size pieces. I used a whole package of center cut bacon for the bacon inside/on-top. Dats a-lot-a bacon #worthit

Bacon should be dry so be sure to pat down with paper towels.

Now's a good time to pre-heat that oven. Tuuuuurn it up to 350 degrees pleaseee!

(If you don't know how to cook bacon, that's ok, I'm not judging you. I'll even give you the URL for google search: how to cook bacon, ta-freaking-da!)

https://www.google.com/search?sourceid=chrome-psya...

Step 3: I Just Want to See You Sift

Take your flour & baking powder and sift together into a large bowl. Not much to this step, #justdoit

Step 4: Gimmie That Butter

Cut the butter into the large bowl with the flour and baking powder. Combine until it looks like breadcrumbs.

Step 5: Mix, Mix, Mix It Up

Take mixture and add your sugar, pecans, and bacon.

(Make sure you saved extra pecans and bacon on the side for the top of the bread!)

Step 6: Lumpy-bumpy Batter

In a bowl on the side, take your 3 eggs, lemon zest, almond milk and whisk together. After the initial mix, pour in the maple syrup and continue to whisk.

Pour mixture into the bowl and gently mix with your dry ingredients. Don't over mix! You want to mix until the dry ingredients are moist but this is meant to be a very lumpy-bumpy batter.

#letsbehonest it doesn't look like much now, it almost looks a little sad, but trust me... it'll be worth it.

Step 7: Bring Oot the Bread Pan!

By this time your oven should be heated to 350 degrees. Yes? Good.

Grease your 9 x 5 loaf pan with whatever you have on hand, I used PAM cooking spray. Pour your lumpy-bumpy batter into the pan, smooth out the top, and put that bad boy in the oven! Bake for 50-60 minutes until a toothpick comes out clean.

Halfway through cooking, remove from oven and sprinkle remainder of bacon and pecans on the top #presentationiseverything

Step 8: The Hard Part

Once the toothpick comes out clean, remove from the oven and let sit in the bread pan for 10 minutes.

You can't eat it yet. SERIOUSLY, let it sit. I know it's tough, those bacon and pecan bits are staring RIGHT AT YOU and you're drooling looking at this masterpiece. After 10 minutes you can take the bread out of the pan to sit and cool on a rack. I didn't want to pop it upside down because then we could lose some of the deliciousness on top so I slid a plastic spatula down the sides to help wedge it out keeping the yummy looking top totally intact.

20 minutes to let cool on the bread rack and thennnnnn...

Step 9: EATTTTTTTT IT

YAYAYAYAYAY now you can eat this freakishly delicious bread that's chock-full of bacon and pecans with a lovely hint of maple!!! Enjoy with a cup of coffee and take on the day!!

Once cool, wrap up in tinfoil and save for later if you don't eat it all in one sitting :)