Candied Bacon with Ice Cream plus a Giveaway

 Sweet or salty - which one are you?

There are times when a hit of salt is needed to offset an overdose of sweetness, and vice versa.  For example, craving a sweet, juicy apple after devouring a bag of chips, or whipping up a slice of Vegemite toast (with lots of butter) minutes after scoffing a couple of vanilla choc buttercream macarons. Oh, you've done it too? Good, I knew I wasn't the only one...

I suppose that's the theory behind mixing salt/sugar with traditionally sweet/savoury foods.  This idea for candied bacon is attributed to David Lebovitz, but really, who doesn't love maple syrup with bacon, or dipping your McDonald's brekkie muffin in honey?

So, candied bacon makes a brilliant topping for sweet ice cream. Here, I've combined the bacon with the new Peters Overload ice cream in Caramel Cookie Madness flavour. They are HEAVENLY together. Trust me.

Candied Bacon
serves ? (let's say 3-4, but no promises)

Ingredients
5 slices bacon, about 3mm thick (not too thin)
2 tsp light brown sugar for each slice

Method
1.  Preheat oven to 200C/400F.
2.  Trim the fat from the bacon if the rind is particularly thick.  If there is too much fat, it will soak the bacon when it cooks and it will spit, as well.
3.  Place bacon on a baking tray lined with foil or baking paper.  Sprinkle each slice of bacon with brown sugar, spreading it out to coat.
4.  Bake in the oven for 10-12 minutes, until the bacon becomes a dark mahogany colour.  Keep an eye on it as it can go dark or burn quite quickly.
5.  Remove from the oven, cool on the baking tray, then chop into pieces when cool. 
Hint: Don't drain on paper towels as the caramelised sugar will stick to the paper.
6.  Serve on top of ice cream, mixed into a salad, or eat as is, as a snack.

Recipe from David Lebovitz

Thick-cut bacon is sprinkled with brown sugar. 

The resultant bacon after baking. Incredible colour and flavour!

Candied bacon with caramel cookie madness ice cream.

The salty sweetness of the bacon goes so well with the ice cream with its chunky pieces of soft cookie and caramel sauce

 One scoop is barely enough.

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Peters Overload Ice Cream Kit Giveaway!

Thanks to Nestlé*, you could win a tub of each of the 3 new Peters Overload flavours: Violet Crumble, Caramel Cookie Madness and Rolo. The rich Peters ice cream is combined with chunks of your favourite chocolate bars, or gooey caramel sauce and soft cookie pieces.

Also included in the prize is an ice cream scoop and a set of 4 ice cream bowls.

I can verify that the chunk-to-ice cream ratio is just perfect - not too little, not too much.


All you have to do is leave a comment on this post with the magic word 'chunktastic' and tell me what your ideal ice cream would be - mix it up and go wild: the more outrageous, the better!
Entries close 7th December 2010.


Conditions of Giveaway
1.  Prize can only be delivered to Australian addresses. Limited delivery area applies.
2.  Enter as many times as you like. Winning entry will be chosen based on originality and entertainment value. Entry must contain the magic word ('chunktastic'). If you also say that 'coriander is evil', then bonus points will be awarded.
3. Competition closes at midnight 7th December 2010.  Winner will be notified by email, so an email address should accompany your entry. Or send details to oohlookbel2000@gmail.com.

*Thanks to Nestlé and Vanessa at Momentum for providing the giveaway prize and samples of Peters Overload.