Well.  I am pretty impressed with myself.  I think I just made the most complex dessert that I have ever made to date.  I made caramel and it didn’t burn, it turned out how it was supposed to.  It was so amazing that I actually licked the pot and spoon.  I never do that.  pretty much never.

So, you see I started with this obsession (maybe not quite obsession, but…I’m not sure.  I was on a mission) for caramel marshmallows because someone from book club brought fancy chocolates and it came with a little advertisement and coupon as well as a picture of caramel marshmallows.  They looked divine and I went on the chocolateter’s website with the intention of buying some of these caramel marshmallows.  They are $27 for 9.  There was no way that I could bring myself to spend that much money on something that I could certainly replicate.  I did a google search, and found this blog called endlesssimmer.com that had the best looking caramel marshmallows.  They even went one step further than Vosges chocolates; their recipe includes whiskey and bacon.  Holy hell.  Amazing.

I figured that a new years eve party / get-together would be the perfect place to showcase this mouthwatering dessert.

The recipe isn’t exactly complex, but I would make sure I knew my way around a kitchen and felt comfortable with a wide range of recipes before setting off to make this one.  The caramel for instance had me sweating a little.  This recipe does take quite a bit of time, perhaps about 2 hours because there are a few steps and waiting periods between the steps.  But, don’t let all of this talk make you nervous.

This recipe makes an 8×8 pan.  I was told to line my pan with parchment paper, but the parchment paper got all wonky on the sides so I ditched it (yes, after adding the chocolate, so I had to scrape the chocolate off of the parchment paper and pour it into the pan which I greased.  Fun.).  Start with the bacon crumble first, since this takes over 30 minutes.  If you don’t do this you will be waiting around for awhile, like I did.  Since this was the first time I made this recipe I followed the directions to a T.  What I will change next time is using a slightly larger pan (like 8×10) and either put a little bit less whiskey or let it boil off more.

Ingredients for everything:

16 oz of semi-sweet chocolate

1 bag of mini marshmallows

5 tablespoons whiskey

1 cup caramel

16 oz bacon

1 1/4 cup sugar

8 tablespoon water

1 egg white

1/4 teaspoon black pepper

1/8 teaspoon cayenne

4 tablespoon butter

7 tablespoon heavy cream

Bacon Crumble

• 16 oz bacon
• 1/4 cup sugar
• 4 tablespoon water
• 1 egg white
• 1/4 teaspoon black pepper
• 1/8 teaspoon cayenne

1. Preheat the oven to 300 degrees.  Cook the bacon and set aside to cool. Once cooled, crumble bacon by hand.

2. Mix the sugar and water in a pot and heat until the sugar is dissolved.  Coat the crumbled bacon in the sugar syrup to coat.  Pour the coated bacon into a strainer to drain the excess sugar syrup.

2. Beat the egg white in a bowl and beat until fluffy and foamy.  Add in the black pepper and cayenne.  Whisk to combine.  Add in crumbled bacon and toss to coat.

3. Spread the coated, crumbled bacon on a parchment lined baking sheet and bake for 30 minutes.  Remove from oven and let cool, then crumble the bacon one last time.

Caramel Filling

• 1 cup sugar
• 4 tablespoons water
• 4 tablespoon butter
• 7 tablespoon heavy cream

1. Add the sugar and water into a saucepan over medium low heat.  Stir until the sugar has dissolved.  Use a spoon to remove any crystals that form on the side.  Once the sugar has dissolved increase the heat to high.  Now and then, using the handle, give the pot a swirl to keep the mixture moving  – do not stir the mixture directly.  The mixture will start to bubble after a minute.  As the mixture darkens to a medium amber color, approximately 5-7 minutes, add the butter and heavy cream to saucepan.  The mixture will bubble wildly.  Whisk to combine.  Set aside to cool.

To put it all together:

1. Place half of the chocolate in a double boiler pan or in a heat-proof bowl or two pans above simmering water.  Heat on low heat until the chocolate is melted.  Pour the melted chocolate into parchement lined or greased pan.  Spread the chocolate with a spatula until smooth.  Transfer the pan to the freezer to chill for about 5 minutes or until melted chocolate becomes solid.

2. Place the marshmallows in a large saucepan (I did mine with the double boil method) and heat until the marshmallows starts to just melt and forms web-like strands when stirred. Add in 5 tablespoons of whiskey, stir to combine and heat back up (it won’t really boil since it’s in a double boil method, the water in the first pan will boil).  Pour the marshmallow mixture over the solid chocolate layer and spread until even.

3. Pour the caramel on top of marshmallow layer and spread until smooth.  Put the pan in the freezer to chill for about 5 minutes or until caramel becomes slightly hardened.  Heat the other half of the chocolate up and then pour over the caramel layer and spread the chocolate until smooth.  Sprinkle and gently press the bacon crumble into chocolate.  Return the finished bark to the refrigerator to chill for 20 minutes or until bark becomes solid.  Bring bark to almost room temperature before cutting.