Candied Bacon Chocolates!!

Homemade Candied Bacon Chocolates

I was going to hold off on posting about these as they're a birthday surprise for my husband; however, with father's day this weekend and many of you still searching for the perfect gift, I thought why not share my recipe, I mean what father wouldn't love a box of these?!

To be honest, a friend gave me the idea by melting chocolate bars and adding bacon, but I wanted to kick it up a notch and take the bacon to the next level! So to all of you out there battling your siblings for your father's attention, or vying for the status of 'the favourite', I give to you Candied Bacon Chocolates, your trump card, your secret weapon. Not only are they homemade (a.k.a. from the heart), they involve bacon... and not just any bacon, candied bacon... and not just ANY candied bacon... candied bacon suspended in a luxurious chocolate coating.... *sigh* that's right, these are the mother... *clears throat* I mean father! of all chocolates ;)




Ingredients:

• Bacon
• Brown Sugar
• Pure Belgian Chocolate (I purchased discs for easy melting)

**Note your amounts will vary depending on how many chocolates you wish to make. I filled 9 chocolate molds with approximately 1/4lb of chocolate. I used approximately 2 strips of bacon.


Instructions:

          1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Line a cookie sheet with parchment paper (trust me on this!)

2. Lay out your strips of bacon, being sure not to overlap them (otherwise they'll candy themselves together). Layer each strip of bacon with a thick coating of brown sugar, rubbing it in with a spoon.





Bacon






Rub-a-dub-dub that brown sugar


3. Place bacon strips in preheated oven for 10 minutes. Flip the bacon when time is up, ensuring you've coated it in the syrupy juices surrounding it. Cook for another 10 minutes. Pull the bacon out and flip after every 5 minutes or so until the bacon has hardened.





Candied Bacon



4. Allow bacon to cool on wire rack. For easy cleanup, place the wire rack over the parchment paper the bacon was cooked on.

5. Once bacon has cooled, is brittle, and tastes oh-so-yummy, crumble or roughly chop the bacon and place a sprinkling of bacon bits in each mold.





Youuu are sooo beautifullll to me.... so beautiful to meee






Candied Bacon Bits... think of the possibilities!?






Add a little (above), or a lot (preferred!)


6. In the meantime, prepare a double boiler using a pot and metal bowl (as shown). Fill the pot with water, place the bowl in the pot - the bowl should not touch the water. Heat on low-medium heat.




7. Once bowl is heated place chocolate discs inside to begin melting. Ensure to stir often to avoid burning or seizing. Once chocolate has melted, pour into each mold, being sure to tap the molds after each is filled (to knock out any air bubbles). Sprinkle in some more bacon bits, press them into the mixture and place in the fridge to cool.








Do yourself a favour if you don't own a chocolate mold, buy a generic shape that will work well on any occasion, also don't splurge on an expensive mold, this one cost me $5 and worked great!


 8. When chocolates are ready (wait approximately 20 minutes or more depending), flip the mold over, give it a tap and the chocolates should fall out. Note: Please handle with tongs or using a spatula as your fingerprints will show up... you may notice this in my photos... luckily this was my test run! ;)

Now comes the hard part - not eating them all before you give them away! These chocolates taste amazing, I kid you not. It's almost like eating chocolate with bits of toffee in it, only it's not toffee, it's candied bacon... ! Be prepared to be the most loved person in the entire universe once these are handed out, you'll swear there's a love potion in there somewhere!