Maple Candied Bacon

Bacon is just pure comfort food! There's very few things that don't taste better with bacon. Ok maybe I'm exaggerating a little but if you are a bacon lover you will know where I'm coming from. I often use bacon when making appetizers. I love coming across another way I can use bacon as an appetizer. Who can resist the sound of maple candied bacon?

Preparations

Method: place 8 - 10 pieces of extra thick cut old fashioned bacon on a grate over a baking pan (1). Mix ¼ cup packed brown sugar, 2 tbsp pure Canadian maple syrup and 2 tbsp white wine vinegar in a small bowl. Brush half the mixture onto the bacon slices. Sprinkle lightly with fresh cracked pepper. Turn slices over and brush with the rest of the mixture. Sprinkle lightly with fresh cracked pepper. Bake at 180ºC/350ºF until crispy. Remove from oven and let cool completely.

Maple Candied Bacon

This easy to make appetizer is sure to please. The bake time is a bit longer than expected but well worth it. The maple candied bacon will be gobbled up in no time flat reminding me of when I make beef jerky. Regardless of how much beef jerky I make it vanishes practically overnight! The maple candied bacon has a light, crunchy texture perfect for snacking. It has a lovely sweetness yet it is not overly sweet. Stand in a glass like meat sticks for serving.

It is important to use the extra thick cut bacon for this appetizer. A normal, thinner cut bacon will be too thin to give suitable results. An additional use for the maple candied bacon would be to crumble it for use as a kicked-up salad topping.

The Aftermath

An unexpected aftermath was the pan the drippings fell into while the bacon was baking. That is hard burnt on sugar pictured in the bottom of the pan (3). It was too hard to scrape off! I poured about a half cup of baking soda into the pan then poured boiling water over the bottom (4) and let it sit about 20 minutes. This is a trick that seldom fails. After soaking I dumped out the liquid and was left with the semi-clean pan (5) to finish washing. In the end the only thing left to clean up was the tasty candied bacon :)