Ok, folks – what are y’all doing for the Big Game this weekend? What are you bringing to the party? Tired of your run of the mill cupcakes and want to bring a show stopper? MAKE THIS!
I partnered with Blue Diamond Almonds and spent two weeks racking my brain figuring out what route I wanted to take with the Smokehouse almonds they sent me. Sweet or savory? Slutty or Healthy? I went full force and created a sweet, savory, slutty, but still point friendly dessert. I’ve worked with bacon in cupcakes before and those were fantastic, but I’m not a cupcake girl really. My weakness? I can’t say no to toffee. And since I’m actually tracking my points, I did the calculations on this so I could indulge without too much guilt! 4pp/ounce. I regret nothing. Alright, here we go!!!
***ProTip: If you haven’t worked with melted sugar/candy before, please follow my directions carefully. Candy can be tricky.
Thangs you need:
2c. sugar
6tbsp water
2c. butter (real salted butter)
2tbsp light corn syrup
6oz Blue Diamond Smokehouse Almonds
8-10 slices COOKED bacon (leave a little fat on it when cooking – use precooked for all I care)
10ounces 60% cacao dark chocolate (Ghirardelli is the best)
Silicone Spatula
Heavy Bottom 4qt (or more) pan
Dope knife skillz for choppin
Wooden spoon
1. DO ALL PREP WORK IN ADVANCE. Once this gets going you don’t have time to do anything else. This means chop all your almonds and bacon BEFORE you do anything else. You are not the exception.
2. Now, put the sugar, corn syrup, butter and water in a HEAVY bottom 4qt and clip your candy thermometer to the side. Seriously use one. There are different states of melted sugar (thread, hard ball, soft crack, hard crack, etc.) We are taking this up to 310 degrees. If you are absolutely determined to do this without a candy thermometer because you are a candy bad-ass then try to get it to the color of the skin on the almond and don’t be all pissy when it doesn’t come out as good as you thought it should.
3. STIR. STIR. STIR. Hey, is your arm tired? Good. Keep stirring. Consider this part of your arm workout. Cause you fixin to stir for about 15 minutes. Keep stirring until you hit 310 on the thermometer. Don’t stop stirring, guys. Don’t stop believin either. It will boil over and make a nasty, sticky, gross mess if you stop stirring.
4. Now, pull out the thermometer (CAREFULLY MOVE TO SINK WITHOUT TOUCHING OR TASTING OR DRIPPING ON YOUR BARE FEET, CHILDREN, or PETS), turn the heat off , and dump your almonds and bacon in. That sizzling and crackling you hear is the sound of flavor gettin all up in the party. STIR! STIR! STIR! The rest of the fat in the bacon rendering out and putting all the flavors into your Smokehouse Toffee. ERMAGHERD – this smells AMAZING. Lemme taste it! You will die. This is liquid napalm. Don’t stick your finger in. Don’t lick the spoon. Don’t touch it. Unless you want to die. And then by all means this might be a pretty glorious death…
5. Sweet Jesus, y’all. Step 5 is to just take in the beauty you’ve created. LOOK AT THAT. THIS is food porn.
6. Now, spread it all over your Silpat with your silicone spatula. If you don’t have Silpat you can use parchment paper sprayed with nonstick spray, I think it’ll work fine but make no promises. Seriously, please don’t get in there and manhandle it. Unless you’re used to holding the sun in your hands while walking through hell and can take the heat. 
7. While this starts to set up melt your dark chocolate in a double boiler.
8. Spread all over the toffee.
9. Now, if you want, sprinkle it with a little salt before it hardens. I like the hint of salt. This is what it’ll look like with salt after it hardens.
10. Let it sit for a few hours. If you’re super impatient throw it in the fridge so it hardens faster. I did. Ain’t no shame in my game. Once it’s totally solid you can start breaking it into pieces. It’ll lift right off the Silpat without any issues.
11. Put it in a fancy container and be the show stopper at the big game this weekend!!!
Serves 40
Serving Size: 1 ounce/4pp
149kcal/10g fat/15g carb/1g fiber/2g protein
***This post is sponsored by Blue Diamond Almonds. For moreGame Changing Snacks, visit Blue Diamond Almonds on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. All opinions are 100% my own and I created the recipe.
Damn girl, that's a lot of fattitude 