Candied Bacon

Candied bacon has been my jam for a long while now, so I couldn't resist making it...for the blog obviously...not for my own personal consumption. Though there was some quality assurance that happened...some as in it was all eaten, but I had help. Candied bacon aside from my Shepherd's Pie (you can find my recipe here) is the most requested food by family and friends. Especially by my 13 year old son. Every birthday my kids get to pick what they want for dinner. That could be anything, restaurant or I cook. Every year my now 13 year old son asks for candied bacon...and pulled pork. Anytime my son smells bacon cooking he asks very excitedly if I will candy it...duh of course I will!

Alright lets get to the candying of the bacon. Grab yourself a large baking pan, line it with aluminum foil and top with a wire rack. Line your bacon up on the rack. As you can see mine is slightly overlapping. That's completely fine once the bacon starts to cook it will shrink and you will have enough room to straighten it out if you so desire...I'm pretty lazy so I just let it do its thing and everything always works out. Once you have your bacon on the rack pepper it with some freshly cracked pepper. I wont tell you an amount because it's completely your call on how much to add. I like it pretty well peppered. Next sprinkle some cinnamon on the bacon. Try not to go too crazy with the cinnamon, do a gentle sprinkle. As you can see below the guy on the far left got a little more cinnamon than he bargained for..oops.

Put your oven rack to the second highest setting and turn it on to 375° and put the bacon in. No need to preheat the oven. The bacon will take about 40-50 minutes, I like to set my timer for 40 minutes. Nothing more alarming than the smell of burnt bacon after you forgot you were cooking bacon...speaking from experience. You may flip your bacon halfway through I do sometimes if I'm feeling extra attentive, but not always. Having the bacon on the rack lets the air circulate around the bacon making flipping the bacon not completely necessary. 
If you find the bacon on the ends of the pan cooking faster than the middle just swap them out with the middle pieces. I actually like when this happens because i'm usually catering to 5 different peoples desired bacon crispiness.

While your bacon is cooking lets get the candy part ready. Grab a small bowl or a measuring cup. Add 2 tbsp of brown sugar, 2 tbsp of maple syrup and 1 tsp of rice vinegar. Mix together well. Okay real talk for a second if you don't have maple syrup you can use pancake syrup. I'm sure this makes me a terrible Canadian but I have done it in a pinch and it turned out completely fine. 

 When your bacon is about 5 minutes away from your preferred crispiness take it out of the oven, but do not turn the oven off. I like to dab the top of the bacon with a couple pieces of paper towel to soak up any fat that's sitting on the surface. This helps the syrup adhere to the bacon better. 

Now drizzle the syrup mixture over the bacon. I use a spoon. 

When you have your syrup drizzled all over your bacon put the bacon back in the oven for 5 minutes or so. You want the syrup to bubble on the bacon. Once it is bubbling you can remove from the oven and let cool for a bit. The syrup will harden more as it cools. That's it! Cheers.

Here is my full printable recipe for my Candied Bacon.

Ingredients:

• 1 pack of bacon (mine was 500g)
• Black pepper
• Cinnamon 
• 2 tbsp Brown sugar
• 2 tbsp Maple Syrup
• 1 tsp rice vinegar

Method:

1. Line baking sheet with foil and place a wire rack on top.
2. Line up the bacon on the rack and sprinkle black pepper and cinnamon over it.
3. Set your oven rack to the second highest setting. Set oven to 375° and place the bacon in.
4. Cook for approximately 40 minutes, or until about 5 minutes away from your desired crispiness.
5. Flip half way through
6. In a small bowl mix your brown sugar, maple syrup and rice vinegar
7. Once the bacon is about 5 minutes away from how you like it, remove it from the oven and use a paper towel to blot off the fat.
8. Use a spoon and drizzle the syrup over the bacon. 
9. Place the bacon back in the oven for about 5 more minutes (or until you can see the syrup is bubbling on the bacon).
10. Let the bacon cool for a few minutes before eating. The syrup will need to cool for a few minutes to harden a bit.
11. Enjoy!