Candied Bacon AKA Pig Candy

Candied Bacon AKA Pig Candy is a must in my family. Sunday morning bacon is pretty much a given at our house. I’d been seeing candied bacon recipes for the past couple years, and finally got a chance to make some for a New Year’s Day gathering.

Often served whole as a breakfast option, I went another route and served pieces as an appetizer. This salty sweet bacon was sublime. As usual, we had WAY too much food at our gathering, but this candied bacon disappeared in a flash.

Candied Bacon

Welcome to Day #4 of Appetizer Week, a multi-blogger event co-hosted by Kim of Cravings of a Lunatic and Kristen from Frugal Antics of a Harried Homemaker. With the big football game coming up, we wanted to make sure you had plenty of ideas for your game day spread. Each day we will be dishing up a different set of appetizers, like this terrific candied bacon.

We hope you enjoy this fabulous group of recipes. Tune in each day starting with Monday, January 20 and ending on Saturday, January 25. Lots of great prizes will be up for grabs so you do not want to miss one single day. Follow #AppetizerWeek on Twitter to keep up to date with all our amazing recipes and giveaways!

How to Make Candied Bacon AKA Pig Candy

The original directions for this candied bacon suggested a 20 minute cooking time. I placed the bacon on a rack over a foil lined pan. I topped the bacon with a second foil wrapped pan. This provided additional weight to prevent the bacon from curling. Unfortunately, my pans are pretty heavy duty and the bacon was barely cooked at the 20 minute mark…and hadn’t made much more progress at the 40 minute mark. So you’ll just have to play this by ear.

As the clock was ticking for departure time to our gathering, I turned on the broiler, removed the top pan and broiled a couple minutes on each side…watching it like a hawk. You’ll just want to make sure your candied bacon is crisp enough to stand alone. I have to admit that I had visions of the fire department showing up again for a grease fire…but I put on the exhaust fan and my scrupulously clean oven didn’t fail me with a cloud of smoke. Here is the photo and commentary my oldest put on facebook after I roasted a beef tenderloin on Christmas Day. Isn’t he charming?

My Other Appetizer Recipes This Week:

• Ina’s Sun-dried Tomato Dip
• Hot Spinach and Artichoke Dip

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Candied Bacon AKA Pig Candy

Bacon with a delicious candy coating.

Prep Time 15 minutes

Cook Time 35 minutes

Total Time 50 minutes

Yield 6 servings

Ingredients

• 12 slices bacon, about 1/4-inch thick
• Finely ground black pepper
• 1/3 cup light brown sugar

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 325º.Put bacon slices in a bowl, season them with pepper and toss with the brown sugar. Cover a rimmed baking sheet with foil and arrange the bacon in a single layer on top (if you have a rack, you may want to use it). Sprinkle any sugar left in the bowl over the bacon. Top with a second baking sheet of the same size which has also been wrapped in foil.
2. Bake for 20 minutes. Check to see if bacon is crispy, and if not, and cook for 10 to 15 more minutes and check again. If your pans are heavy duty or if you use a rack, you may need additional baking time. Let rest a few minutes, break into pieces if desired and serve warm.

Notes

Keep the oven temperature at 350º. Time will vary depending on thickness of bacon and your bakeware.

Recipe adapted from Alex Guarnaschelli