Bacon-Wrapped Lil' Smokies

This year for the Super Bowl, I decided to branch out a bit from my standard appetizer fare and try this recipe. I'd seen the recipe before, but I was skeptical. Until one day, in the hospitality room at an academic team event, I found them. I tried them. My life was forever changed (okay, not really. But they are really, really delicious). One online review called them "meat candy," which sounds really gross until you try it, and then you completely understand.

Oh, and lest I give you the wrong idea about me, I should point out that our annual "Super Bowl" party is really just an excuse to get together, eat food, and play nerdy games while watching the occasional commercial. This year, the Super Bowl was not on the one network that our cruddy antenna picks up (nope, no cable) so we had a football-free Super Bowl party.

Bacon-Wrapped Lil' Smokies

Original recipe at Allrecipes

14 oz. package lil' smokies (I used all beef; I prefer the cheddar, but the store was out)
12 oz. package center-cut bacon (some was left over)
3/4 c. brown sugar
Toothpicks (not really an ingredient, but I didn't have any, so I had to buy some)

After reading the reviews on Allrecipes, here's how I did it.

Line an 11 x 13 pan with aluminum foil; spray foil with cooking spray.

Slice enough of the bacon into thirds to wrap around all the lil' smokies. I overestimated a little bit, and still had 4-5 pieces of bacon left over. Put bacon slices, lil' smokies, and brown sugar into a gallon zippered plastic bag. Mush everything around until the meat is coated.

Wrap each sausage in a piece of bacon, pinning the ends together with a toothpick. Set the wrapped sausages in the prepared pan, leaning the toothpicks over to the side so the pan can be covered. Once all the sausages are wrapped (if you have any extra bacon, just roll it up and stick a toothpick in it) and placed in the pan, cover the pan and put it in the refrigerator overnight (at this point, you can bake them right away if you want to)

After wrapping

Just before baking

I preheated the oven to 375, since I needed to bake other things at the same time, and people who had reviewed the recipe had varied the temperature a lot. I sprinkled a bit more brown sugar over the top, since there was none visible (all the brown sugar from before had kind of melted into a sort of liquidy marinade). I baked it for about 30 minutes on 375, then upped the temperature to 400 for another 30 minutes, since I wanted the bacon to be crispy. I could have broiled it, but if my oven is much above 400 it can set off the smoke alarms, so I wussed out.

Conclusion: As it turned out, another 30 minutes at 400 was a bit too long; I smelled something scorching and the bacon got a little blackened, as you may or may not be able to see. However, they were still the first thing guests grabbed, and the first thing to be completely wiped out, so I really think we can call this one a success, just one that needs careful watching I managed to snag two or three for myself before they disappeared, and they were delicious. They didn't taste burned at all. Oh, and my slow cookers were all occupied by other things (I'll share one recipe tomorrow) so I just set them out in the pan. They weren't there long enough to get cold. If I make these for a large gathering, I'd need to double the recipe.

What did you cook for Super Bowl snackage? Or, if you didn't cook for Super Sunday, what's your go-to appetizer?