Salted Bacon Caramels

No, you’re not hallucinating. I really did just say bacon and caramel in the same recipe.

Right from the start, I want to thank Nancy Leson from the Seattle Times for pointing me in the direction of this recipe at the Suddenly SAHM blog. Though I may be cursing her when I next step on the scale, my tastebuds are singing her praises in the meantime!

INGREDIENTS
8-10 thin slices of plain bacon (no extra flavours or pepper or thick cuts for this recipe)
1 can sweetened condensed milk
1 c. brown sugar
1 c. light Karo syrup
4 T. butter
1/4 c. heavy cream
1-2 tsp vanilla
1-2 tsp course sea salt

DIRECTIONS
Preheat the oven to 410 degrees and clamp a candy thermometer to the side of a non-reactive saucepan (stainless steel is fine), making sure the tip never touches the bottom of the pan.

Cook the bacon hotel style on a rack over a baking sheet in the oven, turning once until crispy – approximately 20 minutes. When it’s done, drain on paper toweling and crumble into bits. You need to have it ready at a specific time in the candy process, so make it completely first and set it aside.

Place the sweetened condensed milk, brown sugar, Karo syrup, butter, and heavy cream in the saucepan and bring to the boil over a medium heat.

Keep stirring it almost constantly until the candy thermometer reaches 245 degrees. This will take a long time, close to half an hour, and the mixture will darken in colour as well as thicken considerably.

When it has reached the right temperature, remove it from the heat and stir it for a minute until it stops bubbling.

Stir in 1-2 teaspoons of vanilla (I used 2 teaspoons of the Watkins double-strength vanilla because I’m a big fan of vanilla) and the crumbled bacon.

Pour it into a buttered 8×8 glass dish. I didn’t have one so I used my 7×11 dish which worked fine, just made for not quite as thick pieces. After five minutes, sprinkle the surface liberally with coarse sea salt. I had kosher salt on hand and it worked just fine.

When it has cooled completely (takes a few hours), cut it into your desired size squares and wrap individually in waxed paper to make a delicious gift. It should keep unrefrigerated for about a week.

Or you can be impatient like us and start cutting into it when it’s still a bit warm and eat it from the dish.