Baking Bacon

We are still working on finishing up the S'mores stuffed chocolate chip cookies at our house....still delicious!

Today we are talking about bakin' some bacon :)  Have you ever baked bacon?  I tried it a year or so ago and didn't have much luck.  I lined my baking sheet with foil, placed a metal cooling rack in and placed my bacon on the cooling rack...thinking that all the grease would drip through to the pan.  I guess a lot of the grease did drip through, but it took FOREVER for my bacon to bake and the cool rack was a pain to clean!!  So I gave up baking bacon for awhile.

My husband has been telling me about the most wonderful bacon that he buys at work that is 'baked'.  We decided to try it again and it was GREAT!!  This is what I did this time....

I lined 2 large baking sheets with foil and then placed a sheet of parchment paper on top of that.  I needed 2 pans to fit my entire package of bacon.  Place the bacon on the parchment paper close together, but works best if they are not touching...or the pieces might stick together.  Place your pans of bacon in a cold oven.  If you have 2 pans, place one in the top quarter of the oven and the other in the bottom quarter.

Turn oven on to 350 degrees.  When the oven is pre-heated, you will cook your bacon for 15-25 minutes...depending on thickness of bacon.  Mine was not thick cut bacon and took 15 minutes(plus the pre-heat time)...but it will vary depending on your oven.  I rotate my pans at approximately 8 minutes baking time.

When bacon is finished baking, remove from pan, drain and pat off grease with paper towels.  After a few minutes, you can roll up the foil and parchment paper and throw it out.

I LOVE baking bacon.  The bacon is not too crispy and not too chewy...it's perfect!!  I also LOVE that my house smells like yummy bacon for the meal, but not ALL day!!

Recipe for Buttermilk Waffles...here
Recipe for Strawberry Syrup...here