Candied Bacon Toffee

By SeattleTallPoppy

Salty, sweet and bacon...what's not to love? This Candied Bacon Toffee is easy to make and everyone will love it!

Ingredients

• TOFFEE:
• CANDIED BACON
• 3/4 pounds of bacon
• 1/4 cup brown sugar
• 1 cup sugar
• 1/3 cup packed golden brown sugar
• 2 tsp instant espresso powder
• 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1/3 cup water
• 1 Tbsp. dark unsulfured molasses
• 1 1/4 cups (2 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter
• Kosher salt

Preparation

Step 1

Preheat oven to 400°F.

For the bacon:
On a foil-lined sheet pan, lay out your bacon strips. Coat the top with brown sugar. Bake in the oven for 12-14 minutes, flipping over half way through the baking time.

Allow the bacon to cool until warm, then cut (with scissors) into 1/4-1/2" pieces. Reserve in a separate bowl. (The ends may be a bit crispy. Keep those for yourself...and enjoy while you pull the other ingredients together.)

Hint: It's key to work with the bacon while it's still warm. If you wait too long, it has a tendency to stick to the foil.

TOFFEE:
Prepare your mise en place: in a medium bowl, combine sugars, espresso powder, cinnamon, and salt. In a small bowl or measuring cup, combine water and molasses. Butter a sheet pan or line with a Silpat.

Melt butter in a heavy 2 ½-quart saucepan over low heat. Add sugars, espresso powder, cinnamon, salt, water, and molasses; stir until sugar dissolves. Attach a clip-on candy thermometer to side of pan. Increase heat to medium; cook until thermometer registers 290 degrees (and no less!), stirring slowly but constantly and scraping bottom of pan with a silicone spatula, about 20 minutes. (You're on the homestretch when the molten toffee starts to become clear. If you're impatient like me...it will seem like this step takes forever. Stick with it....you're developing that lusty toffee flavor here.)

Once you arrive at 290 degrees, remove your pan from the heat, and quickly stir in the candied bacon. Immediately pour the mixture onto your prepared sheet pan; do not scrape the saucepan. Spread toffee to ¼-inch thickness. Use two forks to separate and distribute any bacon that clumps together. And finally, dust the top of the toffee with a light sprinkle of Kosher salt.

Stick the sheet pan in the refrigerator for about an hour (until the toffee is firm.) Break the toffee into pieces and store in an airtight container. Sharing is optional.