Candied bacon?  Candied what?? Oh, yes you did say bacon. That was my first thought when a guy passing out trays with tidbits of bacon, crystallized with brown sugar, stopped and offered the tray to me.  We were at an event at the Modern Art Museum in Fort Worth.  It’s something on their menu for wedding receptions. B was off somewhere talking to a couple of friends so he missed out on this tray of bacon goodness.  Because I tried the one little bite and ran back to my friends squealing about candied bacon.  At that point they were willing to try this interesting appetizer but the guy was gone and the candied bacon ran out.

Ever since I became obsessed with it.

So at Christmas I thought it would be fun to make the guys snack packs filled with some artisanal beer, cheese, crackers and this elusive candied bacon.  Elusive because I couldn’t find many recipes and the first couple of tries resulted in a sticky, gooey, pile of bacon.  We’re not talking bacon glazed with maple syrup.  Actual candied bacon is crispy melt in your mouth deliciousness.  Still I knew it had to be possible (somehow) and I needed my fix.  B was all the more willing to be the taste tester.  6 batches later and ahhhhhhhhh!! Crisp, amazing, candied Bacon.  What’s the secret?  It’s all in the sugar.  Here’s the recipe and how to:

Candied Bacon

You’ll also need:

I suggest putting about 1-2 cups of dark brown sugar in a small bowl.  That way if you touch the bacon while sprinkling sugar on you’ll avoid cross contamination.  I don’t have an exact measurement for dark brown sugar, but it’s about 1.5 cups.  Remember, the secret to crispy candied bacon is in the sugar!

For easy cleanup line the baking sheet with foil.  The bacon grease will still get under the foil but trust me you need the foil.  Place the cooling rack on the pan, then line up your bacon on the pan.  I only make one batch at a time (I haven’t tried 2 pans at once.)  Just fit as much bacon on as you can.

Next lightly sprinkle the bacon with some cayenne pepper!  Just a little dusting is all you need.

Now here’s the most important part:  how much sugar you put on the bacon.  Following other recipes, I lightly sprinkled the sugar.  Some recipes even called for dipping the bacon in sugar (nooooooo.)  This resulted in glazed bacon, not candied.  At first I thought the bacon just needed to cook longer but it still didn’t help.  Then I discovered you need to put a lot more sugar (don’t worry a ton of the sugar cooks off and drips onto the foil.)

So this a Goldilocks and the 3 bears kinda story.  I got the great idea to pile the sugar on, like almost 1/2″ thick.  But that didn’t work either.  Too much sugar = too sweet.  You couldn’t even taste the bacon (it was crispy though!)  I couldn’t stand it but of course B ate it anyway.  Too little sugar = too sticky.  But a nice coating of brown sugar is just right.

Bake the bacon for 20 min. @ 400 degrees.  Of course, this depends on your altitude (I’m in TX so I no nothing of mountain baking lol) so I would check it starting at 15 min.  There will be a point when the bacon looks like it does in these photos, where you can see the actual “crystals” instead of gloppy syrup. When it has this candied texture it is typically done.  If the edges of the bacon start to burn you can cover them with a strip of foil.  In the first batches when I thought the bacon needed to cook longer I got more burning on the edges.  This batch I took pictures of did not require foil on the edges.

Another important step:  Take the pan out of the oven and let the bacon sit on the pan for 1-2 min.  You need to give the sugar time to cool a bit before moving so it doesn’t slide off.  Don’t leave the bacon on more than a couple of minutes or it will break up all over as you scrape it off.  Been there, done that.

After sitting for a couple of minutes, promptly remove the bacon and put it on parchment paper to cool! I let it cool for an hour or two then put it in ziplock bags and keep it in the fridge. People might ask how long it keeps in the fridge, I’d say about a week but it never really lasts that long!

And there you have it!! Crisp, amazing, melt in your mouth candied bacon! I find it very indulgent all by itself.   I also love to break it into pieces and top my favorite cracker and some cheese ball with it (that’s another recipe!) I’m sure it would make BLTs out of this world.  Would love to hear how this recipe turns out for you and if you have any issues or questions at all please leave a comment!  xoxo Brandy