Candied Bacon Toffee Recipe 475

Steps:

• Preheat oven to 400°F. For the bacon: On a foil-lined sheet pan, lay out your bacon strips. Coat the top with brown sugar. Bake in the oven for 12-14 minutes, flipping over half way through the baking time. Allow the bacon to cool until warm, then cut (with scissors) into 1/4-1/2" pieces. Reserve in a separate bowl. (The ends may be a bit crispy. Keep those for yourself...and enjoy while you pull the other ingredients together.) Hint: It's key to work with the bacon while it's still warm. If you wait too long, it has a tendency to stick to the foil. TOFFEE: Prepare your mise en place: in a medium bowl, combine sugars, espresso powder, cinnamon, and salt. In a small bowl or measuring cup, combine water and molasses. Butter a sheet pan or line with a Silpat. Melt butter in a heavy 2 ½-quart saucepan over low heat. Add sugars, espresso powder, cinnamon, salt, water, and molasses; stir until sugar dissolves. Attach a clip-on candy thermometer to side of pan. Increase heat to medium; cook until thermometer registers 290 degrees (and no less!), stirring slowly but constantly and scraping bottom of pan with a silicone spatula, about 20 minutes. (You're on the homestretch when the molten toffee starts to become clear. If you're impatient like me...it will seem like this step takes forever. Stick with it....you're developing that lusty toffee flavor here.) Once you arrive at 290 degrees, remove your pan from the heat, and quickly stir in the candied bacon. Immediately pour the mixture onto your prepared sheet pan; do not scrape the saucepan. Spread toffee to ¼-inch thickness. Use two forks to separate and distribute any bacon that clumps together. And finally, dust the top of the toffee with a light sprinkle of Kosher salt. Stick the sheet pan in the refrigerator for about an hour (until the toffee is firm.) Break the toffee into pieces and store in an airtight container. Sharing is optional.

Steps:

• In a heavy medium saucepan, combine cream, sugar, vanilla and salt. Bring to a boil, reduce to a low simmer, and allow to cook for 3 to 5 minutes being careful not to let it get too hot and bubble over.
• Remove from heat and whisk in butter followed by bacon fat; stir until thoroughly combined. Serve sauce warm. Can be stored in an airtight container in the refrigerator up to 10 days.

Steps:

• 1. Over medium-high heat, cook till the mixture reaches 285F, stirring often. In practice, this means that you cook it until it's a good toffee color. Really, keep stirring throughout the process. Pull it off heat, mix in the bacon bits, (sometimes I add unsalted, shelled peanuts) and pour onto the baking sheet. Spread quickly to about 1/4" thick, and let cool for 2 hours.
• 2. Using a hammer or the handle of a large knife, break the toffee into shards. This is best accomplished by whacking it through a folded paper towel.

Steps:

• Preheat the oven to 325 degrees F.
• Put bacon slices in a bowl, season them with pepper and toss with the brown sugar. Cover a baking sheet with parchment or foil and arrange the bacon in a single layer on top. Sprinkle any sugar left in the bowl over the bacon. Top with another layer of parchment or foil and top it, squarely, with another baking sheet. The baking sheet will flatten the bacon as it cooks.
• Place the tray in the center of the oven and bake for 20 minutes. Check the bacon by lifting the top tray and parchment. If it is not golden brown and fairly crispy, resist the temptation to turn up the oven temperature, and cook it for 10 to 15 minutes longer. Check it again. Keep in mind that when you remove the tray and transfer the bacon to a serving platter or individual plates, the bacon will "crisp" up a little more. Be patient!

Steps:

• Line a baking tray with a silpat, or oil it very well.
• Crisp bacon in a skillet or under a broiler and drain on paper towels. Break or chop them into 1/4" bits and set aside. Don't go too small, because you want them to have personality in your mouth. Use a smoky bacon, ideally lightly cured.
• Place in a heavy saucepan, in this order: 1/4 cup water, 1 stick butter, a large pinch of salt, and 1 cup sugar.
• Over medium-high heat, cook till the mixture reaches 285F, stirring often. In practice, this means that you cook it until it's a good toffee color, about the same color as the old tan m&ms. I'm not kidding about the stirring, though.
• Pull it off heat, mix in the bacon bits, and pour onto the baking sheet. Spread quickly to about 1/4" thick, and let cool for 2 hours.
• Using a hammer or the handle of a large knife, break the toffee into shards. This is best accomplished by whacking it through a folded paper towel.