Few things in life cause such instinctive satisfaction as bacon. The aroma alone is enough to cause drooling of epic proportion. And, yet, there is more...
And entire industry is growing around bacon: flavored bacon; gourmet bacon; farm fresh bacon.
There are also bacon novelties like soap; bacon adhesive bandages; even bikinis made of actual bacon, which is treat upon treat if you ask me. Lurking in the shadows, however, is one baconized treat that has eluded me, until now: Bacon Candy.
I have heard legends of such a thing, emanating from the deep, secretive southern United States, like the candy you can make by boiling a can of sweeten condensed milk, which sounds a lot like napalm to me so I don't advise it. Armed with the internet and a few different approaches, we made an attempt at Bacon Candy or what we've decided to call MAN CANDY.
Here's the recipe:
one lb of bacon cut into bite size pieces
two cups of brown sugar in a large ziploc bag
one nonstick cookie sheet on top of which is a nonstick rack
brown paper grocery sacks
place the bacon pieces into the bag of brown sugar 2-3 at a time and shake until coated. place on baking rack which is on the cookie sheet and bake on 400 for 25 minutes until crispy. i cannot emphasize enough how important it is that everything be nonstick. or plan to throw it out. seriously. remove and cool on brown paper grocery sacks - any other paper will stick like a bitch, so don't try it. again, totally serious about this. consume within an hour or two.
We had planned to serve Man Candy for Valentine's Day Open House at Styring. Sadly, we cannot make 500 pieces required for open house and serve within an hour or two. Out test of overnight storage was a fail. The candy gets slimy and does not store well. Theoretically, if you leave it uncovered, it may keep overnight, but in a house with the wine dog and a home kitchen, it's just not realistic. Besides, being a dog strong of nose and greedy of stomach, Molly would not get any sleep with all that bacon resting in the kitchen.
Try this at home and let us know how it works for you. I'm tempted to add some cayenne pepper next time to take it to a whole new level. Woof!
