Maple Pecan BACON Cookies

Everybody has been going on a bacon craze.  I’ve seen it in cookies, in brownies, in chocolate bars, and even perfumes.  So, I decided it was about time I conformed and gave into the craze.  I’ve never really been one to do so, but this is bacon in baked goods we’re talking about here!  The more and more I started to use bacon, the more and more drippings I realized I was having to drain – which is really a waste, considering if it were socially acceptable I would probably drink the stuff.

This is why you would never ever want to throw away your bacon fat, look at all those little speckles of flavor!

Have you ever wondered what you should do with all those bacon drippings?  I have, well, besides drinking them.  Don’t you dare let them drip down the drain – trust me, you want all that golden, meaty, smoked deliciosity.  Rather, pour them into a small bowl or ramekin or whatever type of small food-container you prefer to use and keep them in the fridge.  Then, as you cook with more and more bacon (because come on, it’s kind of irresistible) just keep adding the excess drippings to that little container, and before you know it you have half a cup of bacon fat and you don’t know what to do with it!

Wait, but I know what you can do with it!  You can make the most mind-blowingly bacon flavored cookies you will ever eat.  Lucky for you, I have just so happened tried making such cookies and I am more than pleased to report that they are as mind-blowingly bacon flavored as I imagined they would be.  Make these soon or forever hold your bacon fat.

Maple Pecan Bacon Cookies

Ingredients

• 1 ½ cups flour
• ½ teaspoon salt
• ½ teaspoon baking soda
• ½ cup bacon drippings
• 1 teaspoon maple extract
• 1 cup brown sugar
• 1 egg
• ¼ – ½ cup crumbled bacon – save the drippings from this for another use or add to your already existing drippings to make 1/2 cup (make sure you refrigerate until solid if you add it to the drippings you already have)
• ½ cup toasted chopped pecans

Preparation

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees and line a baking sheet.
2. Mix together the flour, salt, and baking soda.
3. Cream together the bacon drippings and brown sugar.
4. Mix in egg and maple extract.
5. Mix in dry ingredients.
6. Mix in bacon and pecans.
7. Drop tablespoons of dough 1 inch apart pressing down to flatten out a bit.
8. Bake for 12 minutes then remove from oven, let cool on baking sheets a few minutes, and then transfer to a cooling rack.
9. Prepare to have your mind-blown by the flavor of bacon.

Crunchy Chocolate Chip Cookies

I know there is all this hype about chewy gooey chocolate chip cookies.  I know you  must think the idea of a crunchy chocolate chip cookie that isn’t stale must be blasphemy.  But can you blame a girl for wanting a crunchy chocolate chip cookie for a change?  Compare taking a bite out of a chewy cookie compared to taking a bite out of a crunchy cookie.  The biting of the crunchy one is clearly more dramatic.

There will be loud crunching noises that vibrate in your ears so loudly that you imagine everyone within a 50 ft radius can hear you crunching away.  There will be crumbs flying in every direction willy nilly.  There will be much more drama in the consumption of a crunchy chocolate chip cookie.  When you reach the center you will not melt at it’s center which is unlike that of the gooey center of a chewy chocolate chip cookie.  Instead there will be cold, hard, determination to eat the rest of this deliciously crunchy cookie with undertones of caramel and toffee.  Crunchy cookies are not for the feeble.  They require a strong jaw and desire to crunch.

I recommend you make these when you are in a crunchy mood and crave some drama when you eat your chocolate chip cookie.

Classic Crunchy Chocolate Chip Cookies from King Arthur Flour Whole Grain Baking

Ingredients

• 4 tablespoons (1/2 stick, 2 oz) unsalted butter, room temperature
• 1/2 cup (3 1/2 oz) vegetable oil
• 3/4 cup (5 1/4 oz) granulated sugar
• 3/4 cup (5 5/8 0z) light or dark brown sugar
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 3/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon espresso powder (optional)
• 1 tablespoon cider vinegar
• 1 large egg
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
• 1 cup (4 oz) barley flour
• 1 cup (4 oz) traditional whole wheat flour ( I used white whole wheat) – or just use 2 cups of whole wheat flour in place of one cup of barely flour and whole wheat flour
• 2 2/3 cups (16 oz) semisweet chocolate chips

Directions

1. Preheat to oven to 350 F.  Line two cookie or baking sheets with parchment paper.
2. Beat the butter, oil, sugar, vanilla, salt, and espresso powder in a large bowl until smooth.
3. Beat in the vinegar, egg, baking soda, and baking powder.
4. Stir the in the barely flour and whole wheat flour, and then the chocolate chips.
5. The dough will appear oily, and because of the quantity of chocolate chips it won’t be completely cohesive – that’s okay.
6. Drop the dough by tablespoons full on the prepared baking sheets.
7. Bake the cookies, reversing the pans midway through(top to bottom, bottom to top), until they’re golden brown, 14 to 16 minutes.
8. Remove the cookies from the oven and allow them to cool for 5 minutes before transferring them to a rack to cool completely.

Salted Cashew Crunch Cookies

Crunch.

There are some days that a soft, gooey, chocolate chip cookie will just not suffice.  Noodles cooked to al dente will not satisfy.  Once crispy sauteed green beans leave much to be desired.  And even the snap of a fresh cucumber will just not do.

Cookies or Brownies… or both.

Around mid-afternoon on Sunday I was hit by a pang of hunger.  A hunger to bake.  I nearly always have this desire distracting me from daily tasks such as math homework, but sometimes it just becomes too much, impossible to ignore.  There was absolutely no need for brownies or cookies seeing as I had a chocolate feast the night before, during which I came to an epiphany that I love the combination of sweet and salty as I munched on chocolate covered pretzels.  Anyway, I could no longer sit at my computer drooling at all the things I could be making so I baked.

First, I had the urge to make cookies, but not just any old cookies.  A while back I had bought a box of mini peanut butter cups at Trader Joe’s with the intention of baking something with them, but I couldn’t decide between cookies or brownies and hence they were stuffed into darkest corner of the pantry for months until I could finally decide.

THOSE cookies.

Yes those.  You know which ones I’m talking about.  The ones that have slowly made their way through the entire blogosphere.  The ones in that newspaper.  Yes THAT newspaper.  The one in New York.

Yeah, so I made THEM.  EXACTLY as the recipe said to down to the weight of each cookie (some call me obsessive compulsive, I prefer perfectionist).  If I was going to make THEM, I was going to do it  right.

Well, I made them correctly all right.  They were worth every coverture oval of valrhona chocolate (that costs $16/lb!!).  I now understand why Jaques Torres gets these specially manufactured for his cookies.  As the cookies bake, the thin, oval discs melt into layers of chocolate in the cookie. LAYERS. Like in a cake, except this is a cake that’s less than 1/2 an inch thick, and it’s a cookie.

Please ignore my friend's beautifully manicured fingers, of course who cares about manicured hands when have a cookie like this in your grasp.

That way, in each and every single bite you get cookie and chocolate, and neither overpowers the other.

And yes, I did measure each cookie to be exactly 3 1/2 oz.  They baked to be about 5 inches in diameter (just like the recipe said).  The edges of the cookie turned into crispy, buttery, caramelized goodness.  Then as you slowly savor your way to the middle the cookie becomes chewier and softer.

The only possible bad thing I could think these cookies entail is that after these, no other chocolate chip cookie will compare.  I’m sorry to all those other bookmarked chocolate chip cookie recipes I have, but you don’t stand a chance.  Until I get a job and can buy $16 chocolate, I don’t think I’ll be baking chocolate chip cookies again (at least I can finally bake the other 50 million cookie recipes I have bookmarked).

If you are thinking about making these or have made these before and weren’t blown away by the results, please, please, I’m begging you, please, make them exactly as the recipe says and refrigerate as long as possible (I refrigerated mine for about 70 hours).  These really were divine, and everyone who enjoyed them with me agreed.