Bacon Wrapped Prunes

Socially, the last few years have been a bust due to the virus that shall not be named.

As the holidays approach, I find myself missing the annual family gatherings that normally happen from October to mid-January. Not to mention the work related ones that have not happened in the last few years as well. Not only has my company transitioned from in-office to being fully online but we have had virtual Annual general meetings and Christmas parties as well.

Most of my family is getting on in years - my mother is in her 70s and the family members who once were the party planners are older than that so they don't have the energy they once had to cook large meals for family gatherings.

It is understandable and to be honest, I would feel horrible if I met up with family and ended up being a Covid Karen. And, as much as I am going to miss family, I miss the food a little bit more.

Bacon Wrapped Prunes

8 slices of bacon - Cut each individual strip into thirds. This is the perfect length for this recipe. If you love, love LOVE bacon you could use 1 strip per prune but that is a little bit much even for me. They also don't stay together as well if the bacon is too long. Even cutting the bacon into halves seems a little too long for this recipe. I tried once cutting the bacon into quarters and had the opposite problem as the bacon would not stay in place. Ideally, you want the bacon to wrap around the prune and overlap just slightly.

24 prunes, pitted - Make sure to buy pitted. This is a single-bite recipe and no one wants to bite into a hard pit while simultaneously chewing on bacon. Dates can be used in this recipe as well.

24 toothpicks - I usually use plain unflavoured toothpicks for this recipe. One time I used mint flavoured toothpicks and the result was - odd. I had not realised that was all I had on hand when I started. I did not have time to head out to the store to purchase plain toothpicks. I really should have taken the time. Mint and bacon are not flavours that go together by any stretch of the imagination. Maybe if I had cinnamon flavoured toothpicks the results would have been better but I will let someone else take that gamble.

Seriously those are the only ingredients!

Directions

Get a shallow baking dish, preferably with an edge around it or you will have bacon grease running off the sheet and that kids, is how oven fires start; just don't ask me how I know that litle nugget ;)

Line your baking sheet with foil. It makes the clean up much easier and the bacon wont stick to your pan

Preheat the oven to 40oC

For each prune or date, Take a section of pre-cut raw bacon and wrap it around making sure to overlap the ends slightly.

Secure the bacon around the prune by sticking a toothpick through the bacon and into the prune

Place the wrapped prunes onto the foil wrapped sheet evenly spread out and not touching each other.

Once the oven is heated, place the sheet into the oven and bake until the bacon is browned. It took 15 minutes in my oven.

Notes:

A lot of the recipes I see for this online say this and similar recipes serve 8. But, I could seriously power through the whole tray myself in one sitting. Don't judge me! They ARE that good.

The first time I had these I thought my aunt must have been slaving in the kitchen for hours and I begged her for the recipe.

The conversation went a little like this

Me: Aunie these bacon wrapped dates are so good! How do you make them?

Auntie: You wrap bacon around a date

Me: Okay and then?

Auntie: You bake it.

Me: Okay and then what?

Auntie: You eat it.