Description
Brown sugar bacon sticks will be the most-remembered appetizer you serve. Brushed with maple syrup… oh, nevermind. It’s BACON. Enough said.
Ingredients
Units
Scale
- 1 pound of bacon (about 14 slices)
- 2 cups light brown sugar
- 1 4.4-ounce package of plain or garlic grassini breadsticks (see note #1)
- 1-2 tablespoons maple syrup
Instructions
- Don’t forget to watch the video – it shows the steps very well!
- Put foil on a sheet pan and a wire rack on top of that. This is where the bacon sticks will go. The foil is important because the fat and sugar will drip from the bacon sticks while they cook and make a huge mess.
- Pour the brown sugar onto a plate or baking dish. Something long enough that can fit the breadsticks. I used a baking dish. You won’t use all that brown sugar but it’s needed so you have enough to coat the breadsticks.
- Take one strip of bacon and wrap it around a breadstick (video shows this well). Gently place it in the brown sugar and coat with the sugar. Press very gently on the breadstick – they do break easily so be careful. Transfer the brown sugar coated bacon stick to the wire rack. You can make these any size you want. I broke part of the top off because they are too long to begin with.
- Repeat this process until you’ve coated all the bacon sticks in brown sugar.
- Cook in a pre-heated oven at 350 degrees for 20-25 minutes. My oven runs hot so it may take a bit longer depending on your oven.
- Remove from the oven and carefully transfer the bacon sticks to a parchment paper lined sheet pan or plate. The sugar and bacon fat drip onto the foil and it will be quite messy. If your wire rack is too low, the bacon sticks may stick to the drippings. That’s why they need to be transferred to another surface.
- Pour 1-2 tablespoons of maple syrup into a small bowl or ramekin. Using a pastry brush, gently brush the maple syrup on each bacon stick. If you don’t have a pastry brush just drizzle with a spoon.
- Let cool a few minutes and serve.
Notes
- I usually use plain breadsticks for this appetizer, but guess what? They didn’t have any at the store so I made them with garlic breadsticks for this video. It was totally fine and there isn’t enough garlic flavor to affect the overall flavor.
- You can use light or dark brown sugar for this.
- The maple syrup is the key to the amazing flavor so don’t skip that. Yes, bacon taste great coated in brown sugar, but the maple syrup puts it over the top.
- Yes, you could try using maple flavored bacon. However, I’ve yet to try a maple bacon that doesn’t have a weird artificial flavor to it. Using regular bacon and brushing the maple syrup on is the best way.
- You can opt to make these half the size I made. Just cut the pound of bacon in half and break off part of the breadstick according to the bacon size.