By now, I'm sure everyone has read or heard rave reviews of Butchertown's latest restaurant addition, the Blind Pig. (
http://www.
) When I went for the first time a few weeks ago, I enjoyed the food and thought the decor and ambiance were great, but I left with one thing on my mind: bacon brittle.
With the menu being centered around pork products, I didn't expect a lot from the desserts, but when I saw their vanilla bean ice cream fritter with pecan bacon brittle and amaretto, I had to try it. The ice cream fritter was good, but the bacon brittle stole the show. It was sweet and salty. It was thin and crunchy, not sticky like brittle can sometimes be. It was so full of syrupy, smoky flavor that a few delicious bites were enough. Apparently I'm not the only one who loves the bacon brittle dessert because the second time I visited the Blind Pig, they were out of it.
So I decided to do what any avid home cook with time on their hands would do: be a copycat and make my own. I found a recipe that looked similar to the Blind Pig's here:
http://www.thebrooklynkitchen.
. According to a server at the Blind Pig, they make their own bacon in-house. I couldn't exactly run over there an ask for some of theirs, but I did go to the Valu-Market in the Mid-City Mall to buy locally produced bacon (from Stone Cross Farm in Taylorsville, it's in the freezer beside the meat counter.)
I was pretty amazed by how easy it was to replicate the bacon brittle. I highly recommend visiting the Blind Pig for the experience, but what's better than a bowl of bacon brittle waiting on the counter at home? A word of caution, though: bacon brittle can be habit forming. Don't blame me for high blood pressure or weight gain that can result from an addiction.
