Baconpalooza

Our small group had another eat-a-thon last Wednesday. This time, the theme was bacon. Everytime there's food involved, everyone shows up...See the connection? Food=people will come. There's a strong link there. Anyways, there was bacon wrapped water chestnuts, bacon wrapped potatoe, bacon wrapped dogs, chipotle yam and bacon soup, sweet and also sweet and hot bacon jerky, bacon in meatloaf, maple walnut ice cream w bacon, and lastly, just bacon. Someone wanted some Lipitor to offset the gluttony, but I searched through my pockets and came up emtpy.

I used this recipe from About.com. Used skim milk as I had not homo milk, and halved the maple syrup, using white sugar for the balance. And added a half teaspoonful of Xanthan gum. And a tablespoon of butter for good measure, since I didn't have homo milk. Plus the bacon bits on top.

Ingredients:

• 1 cup pure maple syrup, dark or Grade B if possible
• 1 tablespoon cornstarch
• 6 large egg yolks
• 1 1/2 cups heavy cream
• 1 cup whole milk
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1/2 cups coarsely chopped pecans or walnuts

Preparation:

Bring the heavy cream to a simmer in a heavy-bottom saucepan over medium heat. Whisk together maple syrup, cornstarch, and egg yolks. Pour about 1/3 of the hot cream into the syrup mixture, then pour the syrup mixture into the remaining cream in the saucepan. Heat over medium low heat, stirring constantly, until hot and thickened slightly. Do not let boil. Strain into a large mixing bowl.

Cool the mixture; whisk in milk and vanilla. Chill thoroughly then freeze in your ice cream machine. Add pecans near the end of freezing time.

It was the bee's knees! I think the kicker was that little bit of butter. I brought home the scant tablespoons and everyone had a little taste, since I only made one batch. Love experimenting first time recipes under pressure for dinner parties! Ho ho ho. 

 The bacon jerky was of special interest to me.
Ken, the resident meatatarian, invented it.
He painted simple syrup on both sides of raw bacon, and baked it over a rack under low heat. The fat dripped off, and the bacon stayed perfectly flat, and dehydrated holding in all it's salty flavour. I think I will try it with maple syrup.