Today on Cooking At Home we'll be using sliced, thick cut bacon to make a version of something called "candied bacon" by brushing it with a combination of brown sugar and maple syrup and baking it in the oven.

This makes a great holiday snack and we'll be taking it in a little different direction today by adding some optional Dijon mustard, black pepper and fresh thyme.

Ingredients:

12 oz. bacon
3 Tbs maple syrup
3 Tbs light brown sugar
1 Tsp Dijon mustard
Black pepper
Optional: Freshly chopped thyme

Procedure:

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees and, for 12-ounces of bacon, make the glaze by combining 3 Tbs maple syrup and 3 Tbs light brown sugar with 1 tsp Dijon mustard, whisking it up.

To make this easier to eat at a party, you'll want to cut the sliced bacon in half crosswise. Since this is kind of a messy endeavor, you'll want to line a baking tray with aluminum foil, place a cooling rack on top of that and then lay the bacon crosswise over the top of that.

Next, use a pastry brush to brush half of the glaze over the top of the bacon and then place the tray onto the center rack of the preheated oven.

Stay with it, you'll need to bake it for about 15 minutes initially and then pull the tray back out of the oven.

Use tongs to carefully flip the bacon over. Carefully brush that side with the remaining glaze and place the tray back into the oven to finish cooking the bacon.

Count on about 30 minutes total time in the oven and then, while it is still nice and warm, crack some black pepper sprinkle some optional finely chopped thyme over the top and let it cool down to room temperature before handling.