Champagne-candied bacon & "Champagne" Waffles

You might be wondering why the part of the title is called Champagne-candied Bacon when I used sparkling white grape juice in part of the recipe. The champagne vinegar I also used comes from real champagne, hence in my mind the word champagne doesn't need quotation marks around it, although you trolls out there on the Internet might disagree.

It's ironic that one of the best meals I made for my dad(according to him) was this combination of bacon and waffles, considering I'm the Meatloaf Princess. But then again that might have been his stomach talking since he didn't eat before we started recording this video(lesson learned: let camerman eat before recording). I thought this was going to be a quick video but alas, it wasn't. But hey, the reward at the end of this proverbial rainbow was a delicious breakfast for dinner.

My dad said candying the bacon was complicated. It's not that complicated- although it may be a high maintenance recipe considering you need to remove the bacon from the oven at some point in the recipe every 2 minutes to continually baste it. But it's not like I'm doing 50 different steps. If anything, candying the bacon is repetitive.

I got my inspiration for the bacon part of this video from http://www.chirplikeacricket.com/goodies/candied-bacon/. The recipe in that link candied the bacon with two different juices, but it's the same concept- baste bacon in a liquid combination consisting of black pepper, light brown sugar, a vinegar, and a liquid.

Up until this video, the last time I had waffles from a waffle maker was when my mom was still around, which was almost 7 years ago. She stopped using the waffle maker after one time because it was a pain in the rear to clean. Luckily for me, the waffle maker I got has non-stick waffle plates for easy cleaning. Although I was a tad concerned that the waffles would end up tasting like dishwasher soap since I used that during the initial cleaning of the waffle maker when the manual suggested just using a damp cloth to clean around the edges.

Thankfully, the waffles didn't taste like soap. Although I should've used less batter in one batch, since the batter overflowed from the waffle iron. But that's a lesson learned.

Inspiration for the waffles from http://bravetart.com/recipes/ChampagneWaffles

Now who says you can't have champagne for breakfast!?

You will need:

For the cooking equipment:

Parchment paper
A baking sheet or cookie tray
2 forks
A pastry brush
A medium bowl
A large bowl
A sifter
A waffle maker(no waffle maker, no waffles. Sorry.)

For the bacon:

9 slices of bacon(or however many you can fit on a baking sheet)
4 tbsp. of champagne vinegar(or rice vinegar if you can't find champagne vinegar)
3/4 cup of light brown sugar
1/2 cup of sparkling white grape juice
Pinch of black pepper

For the waffles:

1 cup of all-purpose flour
1/4 tsp. of salt
1 tbsp. of granulated sugar
2 tbsp. of baking powder
1 beaten egg
1/2 cup of sparkling white grape juice
2 tbsp. of melted butter
Maple syrup to pour on top of the waffles(optional)

Bacon steps:

1. Place 9 strips of bacon(or as many as you can fit) onto a baking sheet lined with parchment paper. The parchment paper will absorb all the bacon grease and liquids.
2. Cook in a 350 degree Fahrenheit oven for 10 minutes on each side. After the bacon is cooked on one side, use 2 forks to flip the slices over.
3. After the bacon has been cooked on both sides, put the champagne vinegar, light brown sugar, sparkling white grape juice, and black pepper into a medium bowl. This is the candying liquid for the bacon.
4. Mix all the ingredients together so that the light brown sugar dissolves and all you have left is a brown liquid(tastes better than it sounds).
5. Dip a pastry brush into the medium bowl and baste the bacon strips with the liquid. Return tray to oven for 2 minutes.
6. Repeat this basting process 1 more time. There will have been a total of 4 rounds of basting, 2 rounds on each side.
7. After the bacon has been basted and cooked twice, flip the strips over using two forks. Baste again and return tray to oven.
8. Repeat this basting process 1 more time. The bacon should now be nice and crispy at this point.
9. Bon appetit!

For the waffles:

1. Put the dry ingredients(the flour, salt, sugar, and baking powder) into a medium bowl.
2. Mix the dry ingredients together.
3. Pour the contents of the medium bowl into a sifter, with a large bowl underneath the sifter. Sift the dry ingredients from the sifter into the large bowl.
4. Put the wet ingredients(egg, juice, and butter) into the large bowl.
5. Mix all the ingredients together until you get a smooth waffle batter with no lumps or powder in it.
6. Warm up your waffle maker according to the machine's instructions.
7. Once your waffle maker is warmed up, open the waffle maker and pour the batter onto the bottom iron. Close the lid of the waffle maker. Cook according to your machine's instructions. Mine only took 5 minutes to make.
Note: a little overflowing of the batter is normal but if you get a lot, then you have used too much batter for one batch like I did. In that case, you should probably not fill the bottom iron completely with the batter and make two batches of waffles.
8. Pour maple syrup on top of waffles and serve with candied bacon(optional).
9. Bon appetit!