Long winter weekends were meant to be spent with family. Each winter, we host a family ski weekend attended by 19-25 people. Although everyone loves bacon, I have always avoided putting it on the menu for such a large group because the strips would start disappearing before I could get done cooking, even when using a large two-burner griddle.



Instead, I have been serving half-sheet pans of Baked Challah French Toast with stone fruit jam. This simple, easy dish always impresses with its elegant appearance and delicious flavor. Each slice features crisp, browned edges and a rich custard body with warm apricot/peach notes brightened by zest and powdered sugar. This dish is a crowd pleaser, but not one I could serve to my gluten-sensitive friends.

Maybe about 10 years ago, I experimented with making brown sugar and maple-glazed bacon. The original recipe called for pressing brown sugar on both sides of the bacon, and flipping it a couple of times. However, I always felt that most of the sugar and syrup ended up on the pan. And moving pans in and out of the oven with a lot of molten bacon grease and burnt on sugar discouraged me from making the dish again. But my kids have always remembered it fondly...

Sheet pan brown sugar-glazed bacon and potatoes

This year, my son wanted to make maple-glazed bacon. I told him that I always thought the syrup ran right off the bacon along with the rendering fat, and suggested that he try sprinkling brown sugar on only the top side of the slices, and to not bother flipping the bacon. Instead of using a mostly solid broiler pan rack, I had some pans with wire racks. I figured these would allow enough hot air circulation to cook the bacon from both sides. I also suggested pouring half a bag of frozen tater tots that I wanted to get rid of underneath the rack so they could fry in the bacon grease. I love tater tots and hoped that they would help reduce the amount of hot grease that would need to be poured off.

This set up worked beautifully! After consulting several on-line recipes, we decided to use a 400°F oven for roasting the bacon. Although he started checking at 18 minutes, the thick cut bacon took about 25 minutes to crisp up. The tater tots also came out hot and crisp and lovely. I decided this method of making bacon and breakfast potatoes was a winner!  Indeed, we were too busy enjoying the bacon and tots to get a photo.

Fries fit nicely in my half-sheet USAPan, beneath the a CIA or Bellemain 12 x 17 inch cooling rack. The tater tots required using my Calphalan Unison double griddle (similar to this), which had more clearance beneath its rack.

Sprinkle the tops with brown sugar. My brown sugar was a little hard so I used a mortar and pestle to grind it up first.

For our New Year's guests, I tried it again, using some seasoned french fries we had in the freezer. As we had a small group, I made fried or over-easy eggs to accompany the bacon and fries.

Crispy brown-sugar glazed sheet pan bacon over seasoned fries

Tips: