Candied Bacon Toffee

By cdrier

Ingredients

• Candied bacon:
• 3/4 pounds of *Drier's* bacon
• 1/4 cup brown sugar
• Toffee:
• 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 degrees.
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.
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.
For the toffee: 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.
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.