The easiest way to bake with bacon is to cook it, either in the oven or in a pan, drain it, and crumble for use. If you are using bacon to flavor custard—like crème brulee or ice cream—the bacon must be infused into the milk or heavy cream: Cook the bacon, drain it, combine with your chosen dairy, heat to a boil, then let rest off the stove, allowing the flavor to seep in.

Of course, you can also add bacon to your favorite baked goods as a flavoring, much as you would chocolate chips or nuts. The possibilities are endless, but this is one of my favorites:

Bacon Bourbon Pecan Pie

pie dough (makes enough for 2 shells in standard 8-inch pie tin)

• 3 cups all-purpose flour
• Pinch of kosher salt
• 1 cup shortening
• ½ cup of cold water or milk

1. Place flour and salt in bowl of mixer and mix for a few seconds.
2. With the mixer running on low speed, slowly add in pieces of shortening and mix until the mixture resembles cornmeal.
3. Add in liquid and slowly mix; make sure not to allow the flour/shortening mixture to become solid before the liquid is mixed in.
4. Gather dough into two balls, wrap with plastic wrap and chill for 2 hours.
5. Grease pie tins.
6. Roll out one ball of dough on a floured surface to 1/8” thick and put into pie tin. Repeat for remaining ball of dough in the second pie tin.
7. Freeze rolled-out shell overnight to avoid pastry shell shrinking during baking.
   

Bacon Bourbon Pecan Pie filling

(Makes enough for one large pecan pie or 2 small)

• 1 cup sugar
• 12 slices of bacon, cooked, drained, and crumbled
• 1 cup light brown sugar
• pinch of salt
• 1½ cups of unsalted butter, softened but cool, and cut into 12 pieces
• 6 large eggs, well beaten
• 1 cup dark corn syrup
• 1 tsp. ground vanilla beans
• 4 tablespoons (1/4 cup) of good bourbon
• 2 cups broken pecan pieces plus a handful of pecan halves for decoration

1. Preheat the oven to 350°F.
2. In a food processor fitted with a metal blade, process the white sugar and bacon crumbles until well blended
3. Transfer the bacon-sugar to the bowl of a stand mixer, adding the brown sugar and pinch of salt. Mix on low speed to combine.
4. Add the butter; using the paddle attachment, cream together with the sugar mixture.
5. In a separate bowl, whisk the beaten eggs, dark corn syrup, vanilla bean powder and bourbon. Slowly mix the egg mixture into the creamed butter/sugar mixture.
6. Remove the bowl from the mixer and stir in the pecan pieces.
7. Pour into frozen pastry shell, topping with the pecan halves.
8. Bake for until filling has set but still jiggles, approximately 45 minutes.