WARNING: Addictive Candied Bacon Recipe on CT STYLE with Teresa & Sarah!

Love, love, love cooking live on “CT Style”! Truly an exceptional group of people that work here at WTNH, Channel 8. I feel very fortunate to be able to come here and share creative and delicious recipes with all of you on a regular basis! “CT Style” is such an informative platform while entertaining us all at the same time. This time around I had double the fun with both Teresa Dufour and Sarah Cody. Ryan Kristafer, was away handling the Travelers Championship coverage at TPC River Highlands in Cromwell, CT.

Who doesn’t go crazy for bacon and making it candied pushes it right over the top! After sampling my batches of candied bacon for CT Style my kids asked, “can you make this every day”! I think you’ll love the simplicity of my recipe. Some recipes for candied bacon have you fussing with the strips every 5 minutes during the baking process while others have you melting a concoction to brush on. Both these steps are unnecessary. The whole idea behind my recipe testing over the years is to eliminate all the extra fuss yet still arriving at an exceptional finish.

One of my pet peeves with salad dressing is being served bottled blue cheese when I’m out at a restaurant when it’s a really easy thing to whip up! Making blue cheese dressing is one of my favorite things to make and my recipe couldn’t be any easier. It’s luscious and mild all at the same, it will rock your world! Roasting the creamy blue cheese makes it more flavorful and that much easier to whisk by hand.

As for my garlic croutons, these are a no brainer! Crispy & garlicky little morsels that will keep you wishing for more. Your guests will be reaching for the bowl of these to snack on, so it’s wise to tuck some away in the freezer in a ZipLoc as soon as they cooled when making them. You should always have these in your freezer ready to go! You don’t even need to thaw, go directly from the freezer to your plate.

While these Roasted Blue Cheese, Candied Bacon & Garlicky Crouton recipes will be perfect for your next pool party you might want some delicious summer appetizers to go along with them like Best Guacamole Ever, Crab Cakes, Cold Cucumber soup, Seared Scallops or my New England Clam Chowder! And I have to give a shout out to Davis Pools in Clinton, CT for doing such a great job getting our pool open and ready for summer fun!

CANDIED BACON INGREDIENTS:

10 Slices of good bacon (Oscar Meyer or Boar’s Head)
¼ cup real maple syrup
¼ cup light brown sugar
Cookie rack
Cookie tray
Parchment paper

CANDIED BACON DIRECTIONS:

Pre-heat oven to 350º
Place a full piece of parchment paper covering entire cookie tray
Lay cookie rack over tray
Lay 10 full bacon strips onto cookie rack and bake for 12 minutes
Put out tray, flip bacon over, brush bacon strips with maple syrup & sprinkle 3/4 tsp brown sugar on each one
Put bacon back in oven for 12 minutes
Pull bacon out of oven and repeat step #4, then bake 12 more minutes more (if you are using THICK bacon you’ll need to cook for longer …13 min., 13 min., 13 min.)
Remove hot bacon strips to a plate covered with parchment and let cool at least 30 minutes
NOTE: If you let bacon cool on rack they will harden & stick and you won’t be able to take them off

ROASTED BLUE CHEESE DRESSING INGREDIENTS:

1/2 cup Creamy Italian Blue cheese (If using the food processor you can make with Danish or Maytag)
PLUS 1/3 cup blue cheese extra for sprinkling on top of dressing when you plate the salads
2/3 cup Hellman’s Mayonnaise (I ONLY use Hellman’s)
2/3 cup sour cream
1 tbsp. olive oil
1 tbsp. “seasoned” rice wine vinegar
1 tsp Worcestershire Sauce
1/2 tsp Siracha (Asian hot sauce you can find at local Stop & Shop with all “hot Sauces”)
1/2 tsp Coleman’s Dry Mustard
1/4 tsp salt each and finely ground pepper
3 tbsp. buttermilk or ½ & ½
2 heads Iceberg lettuce cut into 3”-4” wedges
1 basket Cherry tomatoes sliced in ½
1 recipe Candied Bacon
1 recipe Homemade Garlic Crouton
¼ cup fresh chopped chives

ROASTED BLUE CHEESE DRESSING DIRECTIONS:

Pre-heat oven to 400
Place Blue Cheese in a small baking dish and bake for 8 minutes, then cool slightly
Put warm roasted blue cheese and above ingredients into a large glass bowl and whisk until you get the desired smoothness
Arrange Iceberg & tomatoes on a platter then pour dressing over the Iceberg wedges and top with fresh chopped chives, a drizzle of extra virgin olive oil, candied bacon and garlic croutons

GARLIC CROUTONS INGREDIENTS:

1 large loaf Ciabatta approx.14-15 cups
1/4 cup olive oil
3/4 stick butter (salted) melted (For 10 cup of bread cubes….1/4 stick, 2 tbsp olive oil per tray)
4 large garlic cloves put thru garlic press
4 tsp garlic granules (not powder) – Sprinkle 2 tsp per cookie tray
1 tsp salt (1/2 tsp for each tray)
A couple dashes of your favorite hot sauce Siracha -you can find this with the other hot sauces at the super market
2 cookie trays, you want all croutons in a single layer

GARLIC CROUTON DIRECTIONS:

Pre-heat oven to 400º
Slice bread into 3/4″ slices length wise
Then slice into 1/2″ squares
Melt 3/4 stick of butter
In a large mixing bowl whisk 1/4 c. olive oil, 3/4 stick melted butter, 4 garlic cloves thru garlic press, 1/2 Tsp salt
Divide this mixture into 2 cookie trays spreading them evenly all over the tray
Divide up bread cubes onto the 2 cookie trays
Mix bread cubes to evenly coat using a pastry scraper or spatula
Push coated bread cubes out into even layer on cookie trays and sprinkle 2 Tsp of garlic granules
Put into the oven for 12-15 minutes
IMPORTANT – they go quickly at the end so you really need to watch them so they don’t burn
If not using all the croutons put cooled garlic croutons into a Freezer Ziploc baggie
I usually keep them on the counter in a ZipLoc for a few days then throw them into the freezer to store and keep fresh