Candy!

Not much cooking for the month of March, I guess 'cause I've been traveling and eating out a lot. Right before my last trip to Toronto though, I decided to make some candy to bring to my coworkers over there. After all, I bring stuff to my Sunnyvale coworkers all the time, so it's nice to be able to share some with the faraway guys.

I have brought some peanut brittle before, but this time, I decided to make bacon brittle! I have made this before and it turned out alright, but this was probably the best batch I've made so far. The last time I made it, I just used one of the bacon brittle recipes I found online. This time though, I used this recipe for peanut brittle from Epicurious. This recipe has always yielded really great peanut brittle for me in the past so I figured it would be a better base than the other recipes. To make it "bacon-pecan brittle, I substituted 1 pound of bacon (which I then cut up and cooked separately) and 2 cups of toasted pecans for the 4 cups of peanuts. I also added a bit more salt since the pecans are unsalted. This made the "brittle" part a bit saltier and more savory. Then instead of heating it up to 295F as in the recipe I let it go over 300F for quite a bit, reaching even up to 310. This made it extremely brittle and not as sticky. I think I've definitely found my go-to recipe for bacon brittle!

For the fudge, I used this old standby recipe, also from Epicurious. It's not quite authentic and doesn't involve the endless stirring, but it's easy enough and I really love the deep chocolate flavor (the extra boost comes from the espresso powder)! I made 2 versions, one version with nuts and one without nuts, but I think the one with nuts is much better, since the salty walnuts help cut through the sweetness of the chocolate.

My suitcase looked pretty funny, with the big zip-loc containers of fudge and brittle on it, but it was worth it, as they were very well-received. I do enjoy cooking for other people and making them happy, so it's quite a rewarding pastime despite the work that goes into it.