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Author: Taylor Bradford
As I was preparing myself for my next bacon challenge, I knew I wanted to go the dessert route again. Last time I appeard on the PJ Eats blog, I treated you to The Breakfast Elvis. And while I like to categorize that as breakfast, I’m fairly certain you would agree that it leans heavily into the dessert category. I’m not complaining or anything. 😉 It’s truly divine and you should make it the next chance you get!
I knew for my next bacon challenge that I wanted to really think outside of the box. Again, I knew I wanted a dessert and I knew I wanted to make it magical. So I started hunting around on the internet to see what would inspire me. What I came across was nothing short of mouth-watering bliss. So many amazing bacon recipes out there!
I decided to tackle the traditional bark recipe, with bacon of course. And booze. Because I’ve found that bacon and booze pair quite nicely with each other. In this bark recipe, I’ve layered Chocolate, Graham Crackers, Caramel, Boozy Marshmallows, Chocolate, Boozy Candied Bacon, White Chocolate and more Candied Bacon. Pure sugar coma. 😉
INGREDIENTS
2 bags of semi-sweet chocolate chips
1 box of graham crackers
1 cup of sugar
4 Tablespoons of water
4 Tablespoons of butter, unsalted
7 Tablespoons of heavy cream
3 packages unflavored gelatin
½ cup of cold water
1 ½ cup of sugar
1 cup of light corn syrup
¼ teaspoon kosher salt
½ cup of water
1 Tablespoon of vanilla
¼ cup of bourbon
powered sugar for dusting
¼ cup of sugar
4 Tablespoons of water
2 Tablespoons of maple syrup
2 Tablespoons of bourbon
1 bag of white chocolate chips
INSTRUCTIONS
1.) Directions for the Boozy Marshmallows (must make the night before)
2.) Place the unflavored gelatin and the cold water in the bowl of an electric mixer. Let it hang out while you prepare the other ingredients.
3.) In a saucepan, combine the sugar, light corn syrup, salt and ½ cup of water and cook over medium heat until sugar is dissolved. Raise the temperature up to 240 degrees on a candy thermometer.
4.) Remove from the heat.
5.) Turn your mixer on low speed and slowly add in your sugar syrup to the gelatin mixture.
6.) Turn the mixer on high speed and whip until it’s really thick, about 15 minutes. Add in the vanilla and bourbon and continue mixing until well incorporated.
7.) Take a 9x13 baking dish, sprinkle the bottom with powdered sugar. Make sure you get a good covering of powdered sugar.
8.) Pour the mixture on top of the powdered sugar layer. Smooth out if needed (using a spatula sprayed with cooking oil).
9.) Add another layer of powdered sugar on top.
10.) Let sit out overnight for the mixture to dry out completely.
11.) Directions for the Bacon
12.) Cook your bacon crispy, then hand break apart into crumbles.
13.) Heat your oven to 300 degrees Farenheit.
14.) Take your ¼ cup of sugar and 4 Tablespoons of water. Heat over low-medium heat until sugar dissolves.
15.) Add the maple syrup and bourbon and combine well (you want the syrup to liquefy).
16.) Remove from the heat and add in the crumbled bacon. Stir to completely coat.
17.) Using a fine mesh strainer, strain out the remaining sugar syrup from the bacon.
18.) Place the bacon on a baking sheet, lined with parchment paper. Spread the bacon out.
19.) Cook the bacon in the oven for about 15-20 minutes.
20.) Remove to cool.
21.) Melt 1 bag of the semi-sweet chocolate chips in a double-boiler or in the microwave. Low heat is best! Chocolate can seize up if you aren’t careful.
22.) Prepare an 8x8 glass dish by adding in a sheet of parchment paper. You want the paper to drape over the dish once it’s pushed in all of the way. (Like a 1 inch overhang)
23.) Once the chocolate is completely melted, pour it into the glass dish. Place in the freezer for at least 5 minutes, or until chocolate is completely solid again.
24.) Once the chocolate has hardened, remove from the freezer. Layer your graham crackers on top of the chocolate in one layer.
25.) For the caramel:
26.) Take the 1 cup of sugar and 4 Tablespoons of water and place in a small saucepan. Heat until the sugar is completely melted. Raise the heat up to start a boil and watch carefully. Once it starts to turn an amber color, add in the butter and heavy cream. Remove from the heat and whisk together. Let cool.
27.) Once the caramel has cooled, add it to the glass dish, on top of the graham cracker layer. Return to the freezer to harden, about 5 minutes.
28.) Once the caramel mixture has finished setting up/hardening, remove from the freezer and add the marshmallow layer.
29.) Return to the freezer for another 5 minutes.
30.) Melt the final bag of semi-sweet chocolate chips. Add that layer on top of the graham crackers and return to the freezer.
31.) Once the chocolate layer is finished hardening, take ½ of the bacon crumbles and spread on top of the chocolate layer.
32.) Melt the white chocolate chips and add to the top of the bacon crumbles.
33.) Return to the freezer and let sit for 25-30 minutes.
34.) Once the time is up, remove from the freezer and bring back to room temperature before cutting (although with a really sharp knife, you could enjoy this straight out of the freezer!)
