Wednesday, November 24, 2010

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.

24 comments:

  1. This. Is. Amazing. I am a HUGE sweet and salty girl. Huge. And now I shall certainly have to make candied bacon in the next week.

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  2. Great giveaway... yummo!

    Remember the 3-coloured Neapolitan icecream we all used to have as kids? Well this is my new ideal chunktastic version:

    First section: Vibrant green peppermint icecream with mint chunks and choc chips
    Second section: Dark chocolate icecream with large white chocolate choc chips and cherry bits
    Third section: Toffee caramel icecream with dried apricot chunks and dark chocolate choc chips

    So delicious... oops, just had to wipe up my saliva that fell onto the keyboard!

    Cheers, Effie (ebakkalis@bigpond.com)

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  3. This is amazing!!! Candied bacon with ice cream. I love it, Belle. Your photos & styling are beautiful.

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  4. wow...i could eat scooops of this for sure!
    CORIANDER IS EVIL :D
    ok - chunktastic time. mmm chunky salted peanut butter with swirls of maple syrup? im in a PB phase atm.

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  5. Looks really good Bel! This is like the second blog I've seen this week with Bacon and Ice cream. I love the salty and sweet combo but I can't see myself eating bacon and ice cream. I must admit though that I used to be a culprit of eating french fries dipped into a chocolate sundae from maccas.

    So what would be my chunktastic ice cream combo? Hmm whole chocolate cookies mixed through a creamy white chocolate ice cream with whole toasted hazelnuts and perhaps a swirl of thick fudgey caramel to finish it off. Isn't that CHUNKtastic? Oh and coriander does not belong in ice cream because coriander is evil I say!

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  6. I've been planning to make candied bacon ice cream for so long! Now this is a much easier method so I must try haha

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  7. This is amazing! That candied bacon looks like a HUGE hit - and with ice cream. Genius :)

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  8. This is simply amazing! I have never seen anything like it before. Savory ice cream? Sounds wonderful! Makes me wanna run to the kitchen and start making it!

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  9. Who needs the rest of dinner when you have this? OMG! Two scoops would be the ultimate happy meal for me. ;)

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  10. Ive never really tried bacon and icecream... its just weird in my mind but DAMN yours looks out of this world!! I didnt know candying bacon could be so easy it looks sooo delicious!

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  11. Wow - I wanna try your bacon!

    My ideal 'chunktastic' ice cream would have all my fave ice cream things: choc chip cookies, choc chips, raspberries, hazelnut praline and the piece de resistance - salted caramel swirls!

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  12. Wow Bel - you've made it very difficult for me - how can I use the word chunktastic in this comment... oh - there it is! Sorry! I don't have any imagination today but I do want to win!

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  13. Chunktastic - what a word! I'd probably kill for mint ice cream with chocolate cookie chunks!

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  14. Toffeed bacon so glossy and rich, come to momma and forget made up words and phrases like "chunktastic" and "coriander is evil" when coriander is clearly the herb of the gods! My icecream would be a swirl of salty caramel sauce in a fine vanilla base scattered with pralines!

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  15. hehe I like the note about serves-I'd personally guess it serves 1 or 2 if you're feeling generous lol ;)

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  16. YES YES YES a thousand times yes, a million times yes plus awesome to the power of a billion!

    I like this recipe.

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  17. I'm definitely a sweet person, but love my injection of salt into all my baking. So I guess I'm both?

    This dish also reminds me of Heston's bacon ice cream!

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  18. hahaa... great minds think alike! candied bacon rocks! As for the combo? Hmmm... the next flavour I will be making will be bacon and avocado ice cream topped with apple crumble. it will be chunktastic!

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  19. Hey Bel! Candied bacon sounds so good! Too bad for this witch (smile)...but is David Lebowitz really credited with this creation. I mean, haven't Southerners in the U.S. been sweeting up bacon for centuries now?! Me no knows...
    Either way, your ice cream with candied bacon looks wonderful. Oh, and very cool giveaway...
    p.s. I have limited on-line access, so forgive me if I'm late at commenting:0!

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  20. bravo for this fascinating candied bacon this is very creative Congrats !!pierre

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  21. Omg bel - you hate coriander too? I'm hell a allergic to it and when it magically appears in my food I break out into chunktastic hives! Haha! This candied bacon is epic, definitely going to give it a try! My favorite flavor is choc chip cookie dough, it would be a winner with bacon of course.

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  22. Is it wrong that my eye almost flew out of my head just then.

    you know what would have made it even better........chunky peanut butter!!

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  23. Salty all the way!

    Most chunktastic and weird huh? How about chunky candied pine nuts with smashed basil? Pesto icecream?

    Could be the new "palate cleanser"

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