More Bacon and Blue Cheese

When Michael and I started planning the second dinner party I asked him if I could contribute another fun appetizer.  I was so pleased with the Epic Cheese Ball that I wanted to see if I could create another delicious pre-dinner snack.

We had leftover blue cheese and bacon from that cheese ball so I immediately thought of a recipe I had at home that would include those items.  Except when I got home it turned out the stuffed date recipe I was thinking of didn’t have bacon in it.  Oooops.

Well clearly the bacon is the most important part of this situation so I did what any red blooded foodie would do.  I made up my own recipe.  And it rocks…you know, if I can toot my own horn here.

Bacon Wrapped Blue Cheese Stuffed Dates

Ingredients:

• 18 fresh Medjool dates, pitted
• 3 oz crumbled blue cheese
• 6 slices bacon, sliced into thirds
• maple syrup for drizzling (optional)

* If you aren’t a blue cheese fan this would likely work well with cream cheese or goat cheese too…maybe one of the flavoured ones.  Yum.

Directions:

1. Mix a small drizzle of syrup into the blue cheese.
2. Slice each date lengthwise to remove pit.  Fill each slit date with equal amounts of blue cheese.  Lightly squeeze dates closed.
3. Carefully wrap each date with a small piece of bacon, having the thicker overlapped parts on the bottom.  Placed wrapped dates in a well sprayed baking dish.
4. Bake at 375 degrees for approximately 15 minutes.  When bacon is looking almost done, turn on the broiler for 2-3 minutes to crisp up the tops.  Watch carefully as the bacon will burn quickly.
5. Drizzle lightly with syrup and let stand 5 minutes to cool before serving.

* When you wrap bacon around something healthy they cancel each other out.  Honest.