Brown Sugar Oven Baked Bacon

Cooking bacon is an art form.  There are so many variables starting with the right pan. Then there is maintaining the right temperature on the stove, and deciding how long to cook it. Should I mention that it has to be done in batches? It is almost guaranteed that some of it is going to get burned, because you will be multitasking and get distracted for just 10 seconds too long, then you have lost a few slices because they are burnt to a crisp. In addition, there is the issue of our olfactory senses. While the bacon is cooking, it gives off a wonderful aroma wafting through the house. It is such a pleasant way to wake up. When it reaches your nose, you know there is something good going on in the kitchen. But after breakfast is over, there is that, “Oh, you had bacon for breakfast” smell in the house that can last for days. And cleaning bacon grease out of the pan is a problem.  How to dispose of the grease? Nobody wants to clean the greasy skillet. And everybody makes bacon. All bacon tastes pretty much the same. Wouldn’t it be nice if there were an easy way to cook an entire pound of bacon at once? Wouldn’t it make you happy to know there is a way to make the clean up a breeze? What if it even tasted incredible! Impossible you say. Bacon is so wonderful, there is no way to improve upon it. Well, you are wrong. Without paying designer bacon prices, you too can have gourmet slices at home for just a fraction of the cost. How can this be, you ask? The answer to all your bacon dilemmas  is provided by Camille at Growing up Gable.

The first step is to line your rimmed baking sheet with foil. One sheet is never wide enough for my pan.  Here is a tip I learned from my mother-in-law who is crazy good at all things homemaking. Lay two sheets of foil on top of each other matching up the long edge. Fold down the top edge about 1 1/2 inches three times. Now, separate the two pieces at the bottom long edge.  It will be linked together by the folds and is now one large piece of foil. The grease is less likely to seep underneath the foil and this makes clean up easier.

Now, dredge your bacon through some brown sugar and lay on the foil lined pan. Bake at  375 degrees for 15-20 minutes. Cool on wire rack. Do not lay on paper towels! While paper towels are great for plain bacon, the brown sugar makes a kind of glaze, so it will stick on paper towels. You don’t want to miss any of this yummy goodness (I made this mistake and made a personal choice you may not approve of.  I decided the little bit of paper towel that stuck to the bacon would not kill me.  As I am still alive weeks later, I can vouch that you will not die. Nonetheless, it is probably better that you avoid eating paper towels.).

I love cooking bacon in the oven. I have been thinking of all the ways I could try using this technique to put a new twist on an old favorite. Fresh cracked black pepper, maple, mustard and brown sugar to name a few. If you come up with a few ideas I haven’t, give it a try and let us know how it turned out. I can tell you brown sugar worked for me. It went very well with yesterday’s recipe for Buttermilk Blueberry Breakfast Cake.

This Pin Rocks!We are happy to be linking with: The Rustic Pig – Reason to Skip the Housework – Cornerstone Confession – Carolyns Homework