“Just how many armies are we feeding?†My husband, with his usual finesse, needed to let me know I was going overboard. I glared at him and hoisted a platter of crudites that resembled the Leaning Tower of Pisa out to the car. It was a lot, but I’d never, ever, admit it was too much.
We were hosting a Christmas party, and I wanted to celebrate a year of happiness. I like to make people feel special, so I make sure there is an abundance of food and drink. Is that so wrong?
One of the recipes I made for our event is called Spiced Candied Bacon. It’s part of a more complex recipe (found here) that was featured on the Today Show, but I chose to focus on the bacon alone. Despite my husband’s barb’s about overdoing it, the bacon was a huge hit with our guests. It flew off the plate, so I guess pigs can fly.
Excessive goodness? The best part of my day!
Ingredients
SPICED CANDIED BACON
- 1/4 cup brown sugar
- 1/4 teaspoon black pepper
- 1/4 teaspoon red chili flakes
- 1/4 teaspoon espresso powder
- 1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
- 1/8 teaspoon cayenne pepper
- 1 pound thick-cut bacon
Preparation
Preheat oven to 350º.
To make candied bacon: In a bowl, mix brown sugar with all of the spices. Dip each slice of bacon into the brown sugar mixture, being sure to coat both sides well. Lay bacon on a foil-wrapped sheet tray in a single layer. Bake for 20 to 30 minutes, or until the bacon is crisp and cooked through. Remove from the oven and let cool.
Gail’s notes:
I found the sugar mixture rather skimpy to coat the bacon. I would suggest either double the sugar mixture or, as I ended up doing, smearing the sugar in a thin layer over the bacon as opposed to “dipping†the bacon.
My bacon wasn’t crisp after 20-30 minutes. Maybe it’s my oven misbehaving, or maybe my bacon is exceptionally thick. At any rate I gave it an additional fifteen minutes, let it cool, and then cut it into chunks of sweet/salty/chewy heaven.
