Other than cooking bacon with a little maple syrup I never really thought about combining it with sweet things. Shortly after I started food blogging I heard about bacon chocolate bars and I immediatly had to hunt them down to try! Eventually I did find them and I really enjoyed the subtle salty and smokiness that the bacon added to the dark chocolate. Shortly after that I came across a post about bacon chocolate chip cookies! Since I was already sold on the bacon and chocolate combo I knew that I would have to try making chocolate chip cookies with bacon but I kept putting it off. Since then the bacon chocolate chip cookies seem to have taken the food blogging world by storm with new posts appearing every few days.
With the holiday baking season in full swing I found myself thinking about lots of holiday cookies and I realized that I had unknowingly been discounting cookies that I did not think really had a holiday feel to them. This included the humble chocolate chip cookie. But chocolate chip cookies are Santa’s favorite cookies! I just had to make some! But, could I really just leave Santa some plain old ordinary chocolate chip cookies? It was the perfect time to try making the bacon chocolate chips cookies and I am sure that Santa will appreciate the extra effort, and flavour!
My first idea was to start with my standard chocolate chip cookie recipe and just add some crumbled cooked bacon but I figured why not take the opportunity to make candied bacon and use that in the cookies. Fats are often interchangeable in baking and I was thinking that I could get even more bacon flavour by replacing some of the butter with some bacon grease. One of the things that I like most about chocolate chip cookies, other than eating them, is that they are super easy to make and adding the bacon did not change that. The bacon chocolate chip cookies turned out amazingly well! The bacon pieces in the cookies added a really nice subtle salty bacon flavour that went really well in the otherwise sweet cookies. I also topped the cookies with a nice big piece of the candied bacon for even more bacony goodness. I will definitely be making these cookies again! In fact I will have to make another batch before Santa arrives as this batch will be long gone. I am sure that Santa will really enjoy these chocolate chip cookies!
Bacon Chocolate Chip Cookies
ingredients
- 1/2 cup butter (softened, feel free to replace some with bacon grease)
- 1/2 cup brown sugar (packed)
- 1/2 cup white sugar
- 1 egg
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1 1/8 cup all purpose flour
- 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 1 cup dark chocolate chunks
- 5 strips bacon (I used candied bacon)
directions
- Cream the butter and sugar in a bowl.
- Beat in the egg and vanilla extract.
- Mix the flour, baking soda and salt in another bowl.
- Mix the dry ingredients into the wet.
- Mix in the chocolate and the bacon.
- Place the dough onto a cookie sheet one table spoon at a time.
- Bake in a 350F/180C preheated oven for 8-10 minutes.
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Wow, Kevin, I would've never thought to combine bacon and chocolate chip cookies together! That is crazy! And candied bacon? I'm so curious what that tastes like. Thanks for your post. I'm saving the recipe to try later!
OMG….Give me a moment to pick my tongue up off the floor. Wow, this is the total ultimate cookie and I oh so have to give them a try. Thanks Kevin!
Bacon just brings the cookie to a new level! Delicious!
Those look so interesting!
Unrelated to these cookies, I've been looking at a lot of your breakfast casserole recipes. They look great, and totally do-able in my closet-sized kitchen in London, ON.
That is a great idea! It bet they taste lovely!
Cheers,
Rosa
You are the second person who is able to combine bacon with chocolate that IS incredible.
At first I didn't know how I felt about this. Bacon on chocolate chip cookies.But taking a moment to think about it, yes, this is something I have to try as soon as possible. Great idea!
Wow, this looks really interesting. I've never had bacon in a cookie.
You know, I'm sure this tastes fine, but the idea of MEAT in a cookie is just so strange to me! I'm not sure if I could wrap my mind around it enough to fully enjoy it.
I just saw this over on the noble pig too! I like how you used some of the bacon fat and candied the bacon!
You have the best recipes!!! thanks so much for your great posts!
Those look so delicate, chewy, and very delightful….wholly yum!
Would you mind packaging up a dozen for me?…he he!
Enjoy!
I knew that the candied had to have an ulterior motive! These are definitely worthy of a special occasion with the bacon on top. Sounds amazing actually. In such a wrong, wrong way.
Kevin you madman, you have gone too far.
Kevin, you're killing me here with all your wacky combinations of my favorite ingredients. Who could resist 'bacon-chocolate chip' cookies! Thanks & glad I have 911 on speed-dial….
The more I hear about putting calorie choked bacon into and onto calorie choked sweets, the more I want to throw up. Bacon Fudge? Candied bacon? What is so wrong with people's taste buds that they need to OD on fat and sugar to enjoy something?
Seriously? Disgusting.
You and Cathy at Noble Pig both have ccc's with bacon today! It's a sign. I must try this bacon/chocolate combo!
the cookies look great!
you know I love this one!!
Seratonin alert!
I've heard of chocolates with bacon and I am really curious to see how this tastes but really who would ever think of combining bacon with chocolate. How would anchovies with whipped cream sound?
I never in a million years would have dreamed of such a combo. Very nicely done.
While I love both of those foods…putting them together is just wrong!
Nope not gonna do it – that would be like mixing steak and ice cream 😛
Haha at "The Student" completely missing the point of trying something weird and having some fun with it! I don't think anyone's suggesting that these become part of a regular diet 😛
Looking forward to making these for my boyfriend as a Christmas stocking stuffer. I'm sure he'll be pleased, haha.
This is very interesting combination. I haven't ever heard of this before and it is worth sharing with others.
I loved the way you have composed the photograph. Stacked cookies always make a great photograph. Kudos to a great composition.
In the second photograph however, it seems like only one light was used and the light was positioned from front. That created some shadows at the back. I wonder if you would have used white background, this problem would have minimized.
Bacon chocolate chip cookies. You sound like my sons: "Everything is better with bacon!" Yeah, I know Santa will want these.
That's interesting, but I'm sure It's really tasty!
I used your recipe and baked these this evening, using dark brown sugar and maple bacon. We love them, especially my husband! Next time, we'll make sure the bacon is really crispy. They are yummy!
That's it, I am officially in love. I am a huge favour of the sweet & savoury combo and these look divine. On holiday in South Africa I had French toast (made with baguette) with bacon, green fig preserve and pecan nuts, with maple syrup on the side. You would have loved it!
This recipe was intriguing.I've never imagined bacon and chocolate combined together. I would definitely try this at home.
Thanks for sharing this. Hoping for the next..
🙂
I think this recipe is a little heavy on the chocolate. I just baked these yesterday–they're basically chocolate chip cookies with a surprise bacon flavor and texture. The cookie itself is excellent.
Made these for my boyfriend for his birthday. HE LOVED THEM! He loves bacon and I love baking so it was an awesome gift for both of us! :] Great recipe!
Just as salt can really elevate the taste of caramel, I can see why bacon would be an interesting cookie ingredient. However, sugar is often used to camouflage the taste of salt in a recipe. And since it is the salt in the bacon (along with a little smokiness) that lends added interest, isn't using candied bacon counter-productive?
Bacon cookies are fanastic – I've made a couple of batches myself. I crumbled mine and put it in the mixture itself, though, but that didn't – as you suggested – stop me from caramelizing it first. I would imagine crumbling it in gives a nicer balance, but I'll certainly try your recipe as well. 🙂
You are my inspiration. I made those cookies tonight. Amazing!
Amazing Recipe! I made these today and they were DELICIOUS! My mother usually hates cookies, but she loved these 🙂 Though the dough came out running so my cookies came out very thin… H'm I might add more flour next time. I did use candied bacon so it was yummy!
My cookies spread like crazy! I was so disappointed. I will probably retry the whole chocolate/bacon combo in the future again, but after I have time to recover from this spreading fiasco. 🙁
Nancy: They should not have spread like that! Did you use all real butter? Some things that you can do to prevent spreading include reducing the butter by a bit, say a tablespoon or increasing the flour a bit, say 2 tablespoons or using bread flour. You can chill the dough in the fridge just before baking to prevent spreading. Over mixing can also cause the cookies to spread.
I made these yesterday…
I used regular bacon we had made that morning for breakfast (no nice thick cuts here… cheap college students!). I cut/crumbled about four pieces and had another three or so I cut in larger chunks and set aside. I made the dough with half butter, half bacon grease (I had let it cool so it wasn't as runny). Then I had no dark chocolate, so it had to be milk chocolate. Due to the sweetness of the chips, I did cut down on the amount of sugar some. I refrigerated until later when I got back from dinner with some friends. After baking for about 7 minutes, I pulled them out, pressed in the piece of bacon on top, and put them back in for another minute or two.
The result?
Delicious! Not something I'd make regularly (for obvious reasons), but they were quite fantastically scrumptious!
I made these today for a Christmas party. Wow! Fantastic! I initially left out a bit of the bacon, because it looked like it was too much. But you really do need all that bacon. Very delicate and yummy. Will become a regular cookie in my home! Thanks, Kevin!!
How do you store these?
Stinkybabysmom: I store them in an air tight container at room temperature but because of the bacon I try to finish them within 3-5 days which is usually not a problem. 🙂 You could also store them in the fridge and get a few more days out of them; either pull them out a little early to warm up or enjoy them chilled.
Thanks Kevin! Making these for Groom's table 🙂
I had this Bacon Chocolate combination about 3 years ago, and made them for a family get together and asked for them to decide what was different. One nephew immediately said they taste like you put Bacon in these cookies Uncle Dave, he was right, and his wife says she can't make bacon anymore without his asking to save a few cooked slices to make these cookies. I oftem make maple glazed bacon for Brunches and they love it so it works well on the cookies too.
Hi Kevin
I went to a garage sale today and he was selling bacon,choc chip cookies for $1.00 ea.
He said he rolls the bacon in brown sugar, bakes it for 30 minutes @350 degrees, cools it and adds to his cookie recipe.I thought of you immediately, and came right home to look at your recipe. Can't wait to try his bacon idea and your cookie recipe. Fantastic is all I can say, thanks for your great ideas daily. Fellow transplant to Calif from Nova Scotia Terry Madison.
Terry Madison: You definitely have to try them! 🙂