Bacon Pecan Bars

Bacon Pecan Bars
Crust
8 T salted butter, softened
2/3 c sugar
1 egg
1 tsp vanilla
1/2 tsp baking powder
1+1/2 c AP flour

1. Preheat the oven to 350F.
2. In a medium mixing bowl, cream the butter and sugar.
3. Add the egg and the vanilla and combine thoroughly.
4. Add the baking powder and AP flour and combine thoroughly.
5. Spread into a greased 9 X 13 pan and bake for 20 minutes.
6. Cool.

Topping
1 c sugar
1 c corn syrup
1/2 c water
1 T vanilla
1 c cream
1/2 c bacon (thick cut, crisp fried and chopped)
3 c toasted pecans
coarse sea salt

1. In a saucepan, combine the sugar, corn syrup and water and stir until dissolved.
2. Heat until they reach an amber color (I like to go past amber) and then remove them from the heat.
3. Quickly stir in vanilla and cream and stir until it forms a caramel sauce.
4. Add the pecans and bacon to the sauce and toss until coated.
5. Spread the topping over the crust.
6. Refrigerate overnight.
7. Cut into squares, sprinkle with salt, and serve.

My lessons learned:

• When it calls for thick-cut bacon, it's not kidding. Don't settle for thinner bacon because it doesn't hold up well when tossed with the pecans. Also, it cooks unevenly.
• If your bacon is a little too salty, you can poach the strips lightly in water to leech out some of the salt, and they will still fry up nicely.
• I thought I'd be clever and made the caramel in the pan where I fried the bacon (and had wiped clean). It wasn't clean enough. It left a greasy, salty bacon slick across the caramel and made the color nearly taupe, not a meaty caramel color.
• Toast the pecans well, and resist the urge to cook the caramel after you've tossed the bacon and pecans in it, even if it's not dark enough. You'll make everything soggy.
• I thought the crust could have been a little more like shortbread. My crust stuck and crumbled a lot.