February 12, 2014

Candied Pecan and Bacon Bark – Low Carb and Gluten-Free

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Low carb dark chocolate bark filled with sugar-free candied pecans and bacon. A sweet-salty treat! This post is sponsored by Smithfield.

Ask yourself this: how much do you love bacon? How important is bacon in your life? Is it a vital need for you, or are you happy munching on a few strips at brunch every few months? Do you dream about bacon? Do you go woozy at the faintest whiff of frying bacon? Do you have arguments with your friends over the proper way to cook up a rasher?

And do you feel bacon is more important that Valentine’s Day?

If you said yes to that last question, you are not alone. Not by a long shot. Because according to a national survey run by Smithfield, 60% of Americans love bacon more than Valentine’s Day. I readily admit, I fall firmly into that camp myself. I mean, really, do you even need to ask? Valentine’s Day comes but once a year. Bacon is a much more frequent companion than that!

Smithfield also found that 41% of Americans would prefer bacon over a bouquet of roses. But if you’ve seen those bacon roses that are all over the interwebs, you know you don’t have to compromise.

They found that 78% of Americans agree that bacon makes everything better. Well….d’uh! No need to run a national survey, I could have told you that!

And a rather scary statistic, they found that 4 out of 10 in the Millenial generation would prefer to see bacon over their significant other at the breakfast table. Okay, I love bacon but if I had to choose, I’d pick my husband at the breakfast table. And then I’d meet bacon at lunch and dinner instead.

In addition to all this hard-hitting bacon research, they kindly sent me 3 varieties of their thick-cut bacon. Regular, applewood smoked and cherrywood smoked. And they asked that I pick my favourite. Now that’s just plain mean! I loved them all. That’s like asking me to choose which of my children is my favourite. I did manage to keep enough of it out of the hands of my bacon-loving offspring to actual make a recipe.

Notice how the Smithfield Survey didn’t ask if people if they liked bacon more than chocolate? That would be a tough one. Fortunately with this recipe, you don’t have to decide. I know some people are still on the fence about bacon in sweets but give this a try. It’s a modification of my Dark Chocolate Sea Salt Almond Bark and it’s really, REALLY good. The bacon and the pecans get candied together and oh my! On their own, they taste like caramel corn. You could eat it just as is. Or you could make some really good sugar-free chocolate and either spread it out for bark, or make little clusters in a mini-muffin tin. I did both, just for fun.

Disclosure: I was compensated for this post by Smithfield. As always, all opinions, thoughts, recipes, photography, random tangents and incoherent ramblings are my own.

Candied Pecan and Bacon Bark – Low Carb and Gluten-Free

Low carb dark chocolate bark filled with sugar-free candied pecans and bacon.

Ingredients

1/2 cup Swerve Sweetener
2 tbsp water
1 tbsp butter
1 ½ cups chopped toasted pecans
1/2 lb bacon chopped and cooked until crisp
1/4 tsp kosher salt
4 oz food grade cocoa butter
2.5 oz good quality unsweetened chocolate
1/2 cup powdered Swerve Sweetener sifted
3/4 cup cocoa powder
1/2 tsp vanilla extract

Instructions

Line a large baking sheet with parchment paper. Line a 9x13 inch pan with another piece of parchment.
In a medium saucepan over medium heat, combine Swerve and water, stirring occasionally. Bring to a boil and cook until mixture darkens, about 7 to 9 minutes. Mixture will smoke slightly; this is normal.
Remove from heat and whisk in butter. Add chopped pecans and bacon and stir quickly to coat, then stir in sea salt.
Spread pecan mixture out on parchment-lined large baking sheet and let cool. Break up any clumps.
In a heavy saucepan over low heat, melt cocoa butter and chocolate together until smooth.
Stir in sifted powdered Swerve, then stir in cocoa powder, until smooth.
Remove from heat and stir in vanilla extract.
Stir pecan/bacon mixture into chocolate. Spread mixture evenly into prepared 9x13 inch pan. Alternatively, you can make clusters by spooning mixture into mini-muffin cups lined with parchment or foil mini-cupcake liners. You can also spoon mixture into various candy molds.
Chill until set, at least 1 hour. Break into chunks for the bark.

Notes

Serves approx. 20. Each serving has 4 g of carbs and 2 g of fiber. Total NET CARBS = 2 g.

201 Calories; 20g Fat (82.5% calories from fat); 5g Protein; 4g Carbohydrate; 2g Dietary Fiber; 11mg Cholesterol; 215mg Sodium.

Please note that I am not a medical or nutritional professional. I am simply recounting and sharing my own experiences on this blog. Nothing I express here should be taken as medical advice and you should consult with your doctor before starting any diet or exercise program. I provide nutritional information for my recipes simply as a courtesy to my readers. It is calculated using MacGourmet software and I remove erythritol from the final carb count and net carb count, as it does not affect my own blood glucose levels. I do my best to be as accurate as possible but you should independently calculate nutritional information on your own before relying on them. I expressly disclaim any and all liability of any kind with respect to any act or omission wholly or in part in reliance on anything contained in this website.

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