Pig Candy

We don't normally share a treat with the ward choir that practices at our house every Sunday but this time we did. The pieces just flew off the plate. The treat was inspired by a Book on CD I recently listened to and for which I expect to do a review shortly.

Pig Candy is described in the book "The Sweet Potato Queens' First Big-Ass Novel: Stuff We Didn't Actually Do, but Could Have, and May Yet" but the book doesn't give the recipe. I had to do a Google search.

Author Jill Conner Browne gives us the recipe for Pig Candy here. It is made solely from bacon and brown sugar and is easy enough for me to bake. I did find one recipe that suggested adding chili pepper to the brown sugar coating. The only thing I would add is that it really helps to use a cookie baking pan lined with aluminum foil and to place the bacon on a wire rack on that foil while cooking. That way the excess grease and melted brown sugar drop away from the bacon. These drippings tend to scorch so you want to keep them away from the pig candy. The candy should be cooked as crisp as possible without burning. The brown sugar picks up any atmospheric moisture but then the candy won't stick around long enough for that to be a problem. For anyone who likes a sweet salty taste these are almost too much.