BLT with Brown Sugar Bacon and Fresh Garden Herbs

One question: Is there anything better than a BLT on a hot summer day?

One answer: No, but let’s take it up to a whole new level!

The August sun is just unrelenting. It won’t give me a break to try to catch up on some yard work. There are weeds to pull and gardens to tend, but it’s so darn hot outside and my stomach is demanding lunch right about now.

Hmmm, speaking of the garden, those tomatoes sure look juicy and delicious…

I picked a few ripe beefsteak tomatoes off the vine and headed inside to the blissful air conditioning, to see what else I could find in the fridge. Ooohhh, there’s lettuce and bacon...BLT time!

But you know that here at maplewoodroad.com, we don’t like boring food. We take recipes to a whole new level of deliciousness! So Erich and I worked together to create this new BLT that’s so yummy, you’ll never look at lunchtime the same way again.

While Erich had a loaf of his delicious ciabatta bread sitting on the counter, this is one of the rare situations when I prefer simple white bread for my BLT. After lightly toasting the bread, we then prepared the bacon.

Placing a few strips of bacon on a baking sheet, we decided to try it two different ways, to see which we liked better. So we sprinkled some brown sugar on half of the bacon and left the other half plain.

While the bacon was cooking in the toaster oven, I sliced the tomatoes, sprinkled them with Maldon salt and pepper, and washed the lettuce. Meanwhile, Erich was busy making a sauce for the sandwich. In a small bowl, he mixed together mayonnaise, olive oil, basil, sage, salt, and pepper. Oh man, this is gonna be so good!  

A few minutes later, the aroma of the bacon cooking was almost too much to take. Thankfully it was beautifully browned and glistening with sugar, ready to meet our taste buds.

Assembling the sandwich, spreading the sauce over both slices of bread, then layering the lettuce, tomato, and finally the bacon (plain on one side, brown sugar on the other), we were ready for the taste test…

The sauce was creamy and delicious, with a fresh herbal yet earthy flavor. And while the plain bacon was terrific (ok, all bacon is terrific), the strips with the brown sugar added an amazing sweetness, almost like lunch and dessert all in one!

You absolutely must try this recipe and let us know what you think!

BLT fun facts

• The BLT is the favorite sandwich in the UK and second-favorite in the US (after the ham sandwich)
  
• The popularity of the BLT increased after WWII, when ingredients were more widely available in supermarkets year-round
  
• The world's largest BLT measured 209 feet 1 inch and was made by Bentley Dining Services in 2009

Did you make this BLT recipe? Let us know in the comments below!

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