Chocolate Covered Bacon Filled Peanut Butter Waffle Sticks

I have a lot of ideas. Most of them seem to involve bacon. I bought this interesting contraption from Target a while back... the waffle stick maker. I made some waffles, dipped them in chocolate, yawned and stuck it into a dark closet. Nothing to write home about! 

Then the other night I thought to myself, "what if the waffles were stuffed with bacon?"  And, had peanut butter in the batter?  And were dipped in chocolate????  Well, now we have something!

Yield: About 20 waffle sticks

Ingredients:

3 tablespoons butter
1 1/2 cup flour
3/4 cup peanut butter, creamy or chunky (you choose!)
1 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
3 tablespoons sugar
1 1/2 cup milk
2 eggs
6 slices cooked, crisp bacon
1-2 packages of vanilla or chocolate almond bark (or both!)

Directions:
You can easily make these in a regular waffle iron as well, and simply cut them into sticks. I looked at the waffle irons I have (yes, remember, I'm insane - I own 3 waffle irons. Get over it!). Anyway, I have one that would have made them a bit longer, and one that would have made them shorter, but either way if you cut them in slices, they will be "waffle sticks"! Or you can be an impulse buyer like myself and go to Target and spend $25 on the waffle stick maker, it's up to you!

Precook the bacon and then cut into long pieces that will fit exactly inside the size of the waffle sticks you'll be making. For instance, my pieces were about 2 1/2 inches long by 1/4 inch thick.

Preheat waffle iron. Melt butter in microwave. Combine flour, baking powder, salt and sugar in one bowl. In another bowl, beat milk and eggs together.  Whisk liquid mixture into dry ingredients until just combined. Stir in peanut butter and melted butter. Spoon about 1/4 cup of batter onto iron. Place one piece of bacon on top of each waffle stick you intend to make, then add more batter over the top and close the lid. Cook waffles until golden brown, then remove to a cutting board and slice lengthwise into slices.

Once the waffles have cooled, melt the almond bark in the microwave according to the package directions. Place waffle sticks on skewers or cake pop sticks and dip in the chocolate, then place on wax paper to dry. If desired, garnish with an alternating color of chocolate, sprinkles, candy, or other fun decorations! Serve once the chocolate and/or decorations have dried completely. Enjoy!