If there's one thing that food bloggers have in common, it's that they all like food. I'm no different--in fact, my obsession with eating can be ridiculous at times. I worship all things greasy and sugary. And for a long time, I considered starting a food blog, but I was intimidated by the thought of what it would entail. Many food bloggers have perfect pictures with ideal lighting and creative aesthetic details, witty stories, and multiple recipes released every week. They have catchy names and exciting giveaways. As an Instagram fan and a working college student, trying to follow in their footsteps sounded too stressful for me. I wanted to share my recipes and pictures, but being a "perfect" food blogger seemed like too much work.
Then it hit me.
Why avoid having a food blog simply because I don't want to be a "perfect" food blogger? My goal is not to make money off my blog or become an Internet sensation. My goal is not to build a huge fan base and write recipe books. In fact, my only goal is to share recipes I've tried and enjoyed, along with pictures of the processes to help people who also enjoy cooking and baking. I always take tons of pictures throughout the process of making recipes anyway, so I might as well share them with you :)
Sometimes my inner shutterbug leads to problems. I once tried to use my phone to get a close-up shot of a batch of caramel simmering on the stovetop, and ended up dropping my phone into the pot. Although in my defense, this occurred after several glasses of wine...Maybe I shouldn't take pictures of hot liquid substances when wine is involved, but it didn't seem like a bad idea at the time! Luckily the case on my phone protected it for the most part, but caramel sure is a b**** to clean off once it cools and hardens!
Anyway...this blog will be a big experiment for me, but a fun one at that. For my first post, I thought I'd do something that represents my style a lot, and that is pairing bacon with sweet things.
Bacon caramels had to happen. Now with most creations, there is usually someone before you who thought of the idea first, so it was no surprise to me that when I searched the internet for existing recipes, I found several. I compared them and made some tweaks based on my personal tastes, and love how these turned out! As your teeth sink into a caramel square, your tongue meets the subtle, rich flavor of bacon mixed with the buttery sweetness of caramel. I chose to mix a small amount of finely crumbled bacon into the caramel mixture itself then placed the rest of the bacon onto the bottom of a pan before pouring the caramel in, which gave it a satisfying texture.
Grease from the bacon made for an easy removal of the caramel--the whole slab came out flawlessly! I then proceeded to cut the slab into multiple squares, then wrap each piece in some colored foil. If you like sweets, and bacon, then I highly recommend this recipe!
BACON CARAMELS
Ingredients:
1 package bacon
1/2 cup white sugar
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 cup corn syrup
1 stick of butter
1 cup of heavy cream
1/4 cup maple syrup
Directions:
1) Fry your bacon--the crisper, the better, for crumbling purposes later. I personally fried mine with a generous amount of brown sugar and cayenne pepper.
2) Set aside 1/2 cup of cream. Mix remaining cream with the sugars, corn syrup, butter, and maple syrup. Stir to combine, then heat the mixture over the stove on medium. *Caramel cooks slowly so don't try and rush it by turning up the heat!*
3) Stirring often, cook until the mixture reaches 240 degrees on a candy thermometer. Remove from heat and pour in the other 1/2 cup of cream. Stir and place back on heat. In the meantime, crumble your bacon onto an 8x8 dish.
4) Once the mixture reaches 245 degrees, remove from heat and pour over bacon in pan. Let set until cool and firm, then cut into desired pieces.
Enjoy, and thank you for checking out my first blog!!
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