Bacon S'mores - First Annual Porktober

My roommate and I hosted our first annual Porktober Party this past weekend, and for the occasion I whipped up a gourmet variation of s'mores that featured bacon.

First step is removing graham crackers and making a crust of bacon in its place. Then you melt rich, bittersweet chocolate over the bacon strips, forming a solid sheet of chocolate covered bacon, and top that with homemade marshmallow cream, and voila! Cut that into squares and torch until crispy and caramelized. No harm in using only the good stuff. We made a special trip to Fatted Calf for the occasion and bought a couple packs of their thick-cut bacon for the purpose. Be sure not to choose a bacon that is seasoned with anything like pepper - the applewood smoked or similar varieties are best for this purpose.

So here's how you do it. I am personally a big fan of baking bacon. I like how I can just pop it in the oven and not mess with it for 30-40 minutes (for thick cut bacon - at 375˚), flipping it only once halfway through. I also like how when you say baking bacon out loud, you sound redundant. Make sure your bacon is super crispy; you don't want chewy, wilted bacon for this. For the full recipe, you'll need 12-14 pieces of bacon, depending on how big it is and how much it cooks down. Seems safe to always have more than you think you'll need.

While the bacon cooks, chop up some nice, high quality dark chocolate. Or milk chocolate. Whatever your preference, just make sure you use a good one. I featured some Scharffen Berger bittersweet in this recipe (70%). I sort of eyeballed the quantity here, but I'd say it was about 8 ounces of chocolate altogether. You can always add more if it doesn't look like enough.

Place a sheet of aluminum foil along the bottom and up the sides of (2) 8x8 or 9x9 inch baking pans and lightly spray with oil or spread with butter on all sides. Once the bacon is finished, and cooled slightly, layer along the bottom of the pans as close-knit as possible, filling in gaps with pieces of bacon if you want full coverage. Then sprinkle with chopped chocolate as evenly as possible and pop back in the oven for 1-2 minutes until the chocolate has started to melt and is easy to spread with a spatula. Be careful not to work too hard to spread it so that the bacon stays in place on the bottom of the pan. I aimed to have a roughly 1:1 ratio of bacon and chocolate, focussing mainly on the chocolate acting as the mortar holding the wall of bacon together. I'm sure there are some who would have had no problem with more chocolate. Your call. 

You can let this set up at room temperature while you make the marshmallow, or if you're an excellent multi-tasker and will have the marshmallow done before chocolate normally sets, you can pop it in the fridge until firm. 

Bacon before and after chocolate spread. 

Now to make marshmallow. I just used the recipe I found ages ago on Smitten Kitchen and have had great success with. I would disclaim that it's not a vegetarian friendly version of marshmallow, but as you have read this far into my post about bacon s'mores, I'm guessing you don't care. Marshmallows are actually one of the easier candy items to make, in my opinion. They don't require getting the boiling sugar up to that high of a temperature, and if you have a stand mixer, they basically just whip themselves for most of the process. A note about the recipe: the only thing you don't need to do is dust these with powdered sugar, so you can skip that ingredient. 

Once you have your marshmallow fluffed and ready, spread it over the tops of the bacon chocolate bars until smooth (or as smooth as you can get considering it's difficult to work with). You need to let it set up in the fridge for about 3-4 hours, at which point it will be ready for torching. 

Lift the aluminum foil out of the pan and cut into roughly 1 inch cubes. A trick with cutting marshmallow is to have your knife blade be slightly wet. This means getting it wet in between each cut, so might as well keep a tall glass of water to dip the blade in by your workspace as you are cutting to speed up the process. Once your squares are cut, they're ready for flame. I happen to own a lovely creme brulee torch which does the trick better than anything. I am sure a more resourceful person could come up with a way to use a regular cigarette lighter, or the oven on "broil," but I enjoy having more control over the toasting process. After all, marshmallow can go from perfectly caramelized to carcinogenic in seconds. 

These were not universally enjoyed, but most people who liked them loved them, so if you're into the sweet, salty, savory flavor combo, I'd say they're worth trying at least once. 

S'more Cupcakes

As the summer season begins to wane, I begin to feel nostalgic about those last few days we used to have before school would start; trying desperately to hold on to the freedom and adventure we so foolishly took for granted in early July.

As an adult, the sense of panic doesn't get much better. I question whether or not I really appreciated all that the summer had to offer: did I enjoy the warm weather enough, the late daylight saving's evenings, or the fresh ingredients of the season, etc. And as much as I adore and eagerly look forward to what Autumn has to offer, I find I'm still scrambling to hold on to all the good things about summer before it's all washed away in the sea of Halloween Costume stores.

So, to keep it alive with just one more recipe, I fall back on family tradition: camping. And what makes camping really camping? Roasting s'mores over an open fire, of course.

I have over the past couple years been on a fairly epic quest to perfect a s'more cupcake recipe. Sadly, I don't think I'm 100% there, but this latest version does have a very appealing look about it. AND I got to use my little kitchen torch, which is always fun.

To start, I attempted to combine a vanilla cupcake recipe with a graham cracker twist:

Graham Cupcakes:

Preheat oven to 350˚

Line approximately 20 cupcake tins.

• 2 C Flour
• 3/4 tsp baking soda
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/2 C butter
• 1 C brown sugar
• 2 tbs honey
• 2 eggs
• 1 C buttermilk

Whisk together flour, baking soda and salt and set aside. In electric mixer, blend butter, sugar and honey until creamy, scraping down sides occasionally. Add honey and one egg at at time until incorporated. Beginning and ending with flour mixture, add flour and buttermilk alternately. Fill cupcake tins. Bake for 20 minutes. Cool.

Then dip each cup

cake top into

Chocolate ganache:

• 8 oz chopped chocolate (I used semi-sweet) or chocolate chips
• 4 oz heated cream (warm but not boiling)

Pour warmed cream over chocolate and let sit 1-2 minutes, then whisk together until smooth. I occasionally have to stick the mixture in the microwave for 10 second intervals until all the chocolate is melted. Be careful not to overheat, as it will begin separate. Bad.

Once your cupcakes have a healthy topping of chocolate, then comes the marshmallow! With a stand mixer, making marshmallows from scratch is a cinch, albeit messy. Luckily, I was able to get the freshly made marshmallow cream to my piping bag without much hassle, and it piped onto the tops of the cupcakes perfectly.

Marshmallow "Frosting":

• 3 envelopes (1/4 oz) unflavored gelatin
• 1/2 cup cold water
• 2 cups sugar
• 1/2 cup corn syrup
• 1/2 cup water
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 2 large egg whites
• 1 tablespoon vanilla

In bowl of a stand mixer sprinkle gelatin over 1/2 cup cold cold water, and let stand to soften (about 5 minutes are needed).

In a heavy sauce pan cook sugar, corn syrup, 1/2 cup water, and salt over low heat, stirring until sugar is dissolved. When it begins to boil, stop stirring. Boil until candy thermometer reaches 240°F. Pour sugar mixture over gelatin mixture, stirring until gelatin is dissolved.

Beat mixture on high speed until white, thick, and nearly tripled in volume, approximately 6-8 minutes.

In a separate bowl beat egg whites until they hold stiff peaks. Beat whites and vanilla into sugar mixture until just combined.

Gently spoon this mixture into a large piping bag and start topping the cupcakes.

(To be honest, I think I only made half the recipe for this many cupcakes, but there's never any problem with too much marshmallow mix. See my marshmallow recipe for instructions on how to deal with the "leftover" if necessary. )

After cupcakes are topped, let them refrigerate for an hour or so until the marshmallow is set. It'll still be pretty sticky no matter how long you leave them for, so in the interest of not drying out your cupcakes, I recommend not leaving them in there too long.

Now it's time for the torch. Be careful, have supervision, all those disclaimers, etc, etc, and try not to overly scorch the cupcakes. Or, I guess it really just depends on how you like your marshmallow. I was going for looks, so didn't let it get too burnt or mushy.

As I was saying earlier, I don't think I'm quite there yet. The graham cracker cupcake wasn't bad, but it didn't quite fulfill the role of graham cracker, likely because there was no crunch, but was also a little dry. As well, many people thought it needed a higher chocolate to cupcake/marshmallow ratio. No complaints on the marshmallow, as far as flavor, but I did find that in some instances, the marshmallow was not completely adhered to it's ganache partner, which was noticed mainly when you took a bite of the cupcake, and the marshmallow stuck to your lip, popping right off the cupcake.

So, there is more work to be done, but all in all, I'm moving in the right direction.

With that, I will say adieu to the summer of 2010, and with a clear conscience, I can eagerly move forward into the brimming and wondrous season of Autumn.