Bacon Wrapped Brussels Sprouts

This is a perfect Thanksgiving menu appetizer! Or, for me anyway, I could eat them any day of the year! They are delicious and at the top of my list for good and healthy appetizers!

When I came across this recipe idea, my first thought was yum . . . the second thought was that I could make this simple recipe even easier and skip a couple of the steps! But the 5 star reviews made me decide to not cheat on the recipe, and it really is very simple just as is. The step I considered omitting was brushing some maple syrup on the bacon, then sprinkling the bacon with pepper, it couldn’t really make all that much difference, right? But the 5 stars? Ya, better not skip any steps. I’m so glad I stuck with the original recipe, just that little bit of sweetness and pop of pepper made the flavor really stand outI Thank you to tasty.co for sharing this!

I used medium size organic brussels sprouts, if they are too small the bacon overwhelms them, or too big and they aren’t bite size (which is what I like!). Good quality pork makes for the best bacon and purchasing the thinner sliced bacon makes it easier to roll. I used organic pure maple syrup which eliminates any processed sugars and adds just a tad of sweet to the already salty flavor of the bacon, a perfect blend. The bacon slices can be cut in half or thirds so experiment with that a few times before you cut through the whole package. There’s too much variance in the size of brussels sprouts and the length of bacon slices to state a hard and fast instruction here, so just play with one or two pieces first.

INGREDIENTS -

1 pound bacon, sliced in half or thirds
Brussels sprouts, medium size, 20-30, depending on how many you want to make
2-3 Tbsp pure maple syrup
Pepper

Yep - that’s the whole ingredient list! And to think I wanted to cheat a little bit 🙄.

Preheat the oven to 375. Prepare the bacon by laying the slices out on a cutting board, then using a pastry brush, dip into the maple syrup and spread the syrup lightly on the bacon. Sprinkle pepper over that and then slice the first piece in either half or thirds to test out your bacon for size with the brussels sprouts.

Roll the brussels sprouts up in the bacon and place in a baking dish. Then the question is, to toothpick or not to toothpick. The original recipe used toothpicks. I found it a little tough to poke into the brussels sprouts, but then I ran out of toothpicks halfway through, so that pretty much answered the question for me. The last half of brussels sprouts were just wrapped up in bacon and then placed in the pan with the crease on the bottom. And guess what - they stayed together just fine 😊.

Bake at 375 for 30-40 minutes, until the bacon is cooked through and brussels sprouts have softened.

Ready to WOW your guests? Everyone will love this!! Enjoy!