Yup. I totally went there. Added bacon to a Christmas candy. Okay, in absolute fairness I can’t claim that it was my idea to do so. But I can claim to know a good thing when I see it. And these bad boys are good.
Last year I focused on savory treats for the holidays, but this year I’m whipping up sweet snacks and they all contain peanuts or peanut butter. I love both—pretty much everyone in my family does. My brother and his kids are particularly fond of peanut butter. And my nephews LOVE bacon. This become apparent after they spent 15 minutes sharing with me the many virtues of bacon a few years ago.
You can’t sneak anything by your Auntie Tanya. She’s a rocket scientist. 😀
Not.
Anyway, once I saw these delectable goodies, I knew they were making my “nice” list this Christmas. They are sinfully delicious. Often times I give away most of the sweets I make or otherwise they may spoil. But not these babies. I selfishly kept them all for myself. So good.
I always figure everyone indulges a little bit at Christmas, but I might have to watch my nephews. Otherwise they may lick the plate clean and not let anyone else try one. Or two. Or three or four. I’m not judging. 🙂
Bacon Peanut Clusters
Ingredients
- 1 cup sugar
- 1/2 cup packed brown sugar
- 1/2 cup buttermilk
- 1 tablespoon light corn syrup
- 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/4 teaspoon kosher salt
- 4 Tablespoons butter
- 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1 cup salted, dry roasted peanuts
- 1 Tablespoon creamy peanut butter
- 4 slices bacon, crumbled
Instructions
- In a heavy-bottomed, deep saucepan, stir together the white and brown sugars, buttermilk, corn syrup, baking soda and salt. Cook over medium heat for about 20 minutes or until the mixture reaches 235 on a candy thermometer.
- Meanwhile prep the remaining ingredients so you are ready to go once the mixture hits 235 degrees. Immediately remove from heat and add butter, vanilla, peanuts, peanut butter and bacon. Stir with a wooden spoon until creamy or the thickness you desire. I like my clusters to spread slightly.
- Drop by teaspoonfuls onto buttered parchment paper. Let stand for 30 minutes or until cool and firm. Store in an air tight container.
Notes
Please note: The mixture will still be quite thin when it reaches 235 degrees, but will continue to thicken as you stir in the remaining ingredients. It may take a minute or two of stirring to reach your desired level of creaminess.
Recipe from Framed.
Enjoy!
Tanya
P.S. Be sure to checkout my post over at Tackling Our Debt where I share some tips to help make holiday baking a snap this year. Plus, I tempt you with another drool-worthy holiday treat: Chocolate Peanut Butter Saltine Toffee. Easy and addictive!
Hi Tanya,
This looks YUM 🙂
The only sad part is that being a total vegetarian, I guess I’d have to leave the bacon out and perhaps substitute it with something else. I think the peanuts must be tasting so well in all of this 🙂
Thanks for sharing. Have a nice weekend, and enjoy your Christmas cooking, and shopping too 🙂
Thanks, Harleena! It would taste excellent without bacon too. 🙂 The clusters have such a nice rich toffee flavor. You have a wonderful weekend too!
Tanya, Anything that includes bacon is super cool and esp with chocolate. Peanuts are not my fav but I wonder what they would taste like with almonds or cashews. Those I love covered in chocolate.
Have a great weekend!!
They would be great with cashews or pecans. I think whole almonds would be delicious too. I believe the original recipe called for pecans but I’m not a huge fan of them. Peanuts were on sale so that’s what I chose but I think cashews in particular would make a great alternative.
You had me at bacon, Tanya! My boys too. I showed them this recipe and they are begging me to make the cookies this afternoon. I wonder what it’s worth to them? I bet I can get a bathroom cleaned, and even floor vacuumed out of this.
LOL! I absolutely bet you can get a clean bathroom and vacuumed floors out of it and that’s before they taste them! Afterwards, they might even do the dishes for you! 🙂
BACON! Is there anything it doesn’t improve? I’m thinking of making dark chocolate covered bacon. Mmmmm. . .
I think it makes everything better, Maggie! And once upon a time – I wasn’t a huge fan. Crazy, I know! Bacon covered in dark chocolate would be amazing. Let me know if you try it.
Mmm… – I love bacon, I love peanuts and I LOVE chocolate, but I’ve never thought of eating them all together. I’ll have to think about this one…. Just not sure about the bacon with the chocolate, but I can see that other people who’ve commented have no such scruples. Maybe I need to be a bit more adventurous 😉
Bacon seems to have moved from a breakfast sidekick to a popular add-on to almost any dish! I’ve seen so many sweet recipes with bacon added but this one was the first one I tried. I loved it and bet you would too. 🙂
Ok, I keep hearing about mixing bacon with sweet stuff (as in the Bacon Sundae – huh???) and I always thought it sounded yucky, but now I’m intrigued!! Might have to make this one for our cookie baking day!!
My nephews tried the bacon sundae at BK and they liked it, but didn’t love it. I was a bit surprised because I was pretty sure if something had bacon in it, they would love it. I feel pretty secure that they would love these. Maybe I’ll be a nice Auntie and make some for them! Definitely give this a try. It just adds the right amount of salty crunch. I bet your kids would really like them!
Okay Tanya, really!
Bacon in a sweet?
Just the title of it made me quiver and I love every ingredient in it. I just can’t imagine them all tasting good together.
I think for this one I’m just going to have to take your word for it. LOL!!!
~Adrienne
I know, I know. Sounds weird but it works. As much as I love bacon, I was taken aback when it started to appear in sweets too. This was the recipe I tried with bacon in a dessert and I have to say the savory and sweet combo worked for me!
I’m intrigued because of the bacon. Last year I went to a wine tasting event and they had chocolate covered chocolate. I didn’t think that I would like it but I did. There’s definitely something to combining savory and sweet!
Yes, I’ve seen chocolate covered bacon too but I have not tried it. I think it would be quite good. Savory and sweet do make a wonderful combo and especially since this girl tends to favor savory over sweet! 🙂
You had me at bacon and chocolate. Yum! I’ll try these soon. Thanks for sharing!
Fantastic, Donna! I hope you enjoy them as much as I did!