As I was settling down for some holiday cookie baking, including my favourite gingersnap cookies, I came across the idea for bacon gingersnap cookies on Kevin is Cooking and given my bacon addiction it was pretty much a given that I would be making some! The bacon is added to the gingersnap cookies by replacing the butter with rendered bacon fat so I took my gingersnap cookie recipe and did just that! Now I know that this might seem a little strange at first but I have tried similar things in the past including making bacon chocolate chip cookies and bacon maple shortbread by adding bacon pieces to both and they are amazingly good! By using bacon fat rather than adding pieces of bacon you add that bacon umami flavour which takes these gingersnap cookies way over the edge and most people would not be able to say that they knew that there was bacon in them if you don’t tell them first. When you get to making your gingersnap cookies this year, try making one batch with bacon fat instead of butter! What a great way to add a little bacon to your holiday cheer!
Bacon Gingersnap Cookies
Soft and chewy gingersnap cookies that are crispy around the edges and made with a secret ingredient, bacon grease which takes them to a whole new level of amazing! They’ll never be able to guess the secret ingredient!
ingredients
- 2 cups all-purpose flour
- 2 teaspoons baking soda
- 1 tablespoon ground ginger
- 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- 1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 3/4 cup rendered bacon fat (from cooking ~2 pounds bacon)
- 1 cup sugar
- 1 egg
- 1/4 cup molasses
- 1/4 cup coarse grain sugar (optional)
directions
- Mix the flour, baking soda, ginger, cinnamon, cloves and salt in a bowl.
- Mix the bacon fat and sugar.
- Beat in the egg followed by the molasses.
- Mix the dry ingredients into the wet.
- Form the dough into small balls, optionally rolling them in sugar and placing them on a baking sheet.
- Bake in a preheated 350F/180C oven until lightly golden brown on the edges, about 8-10 minutes.
These cookies are making my mouth water! They have such perfect crackly tops, and I love the addition of the bacon – wonderful! 🙂
I have two questions.
1) In your second step, it says to cream the butter and sugar. I don't see any butter in this recipe. Did you mean the bacon fat?
2) If you didn't mean bacon fat, then where does the bacon fat come into this recipe?
Unknown: Yes, in step 2 you are mixing the bacon fat and not the butter. I have fixed the recipe. Enjoy!
OMG! I am a "Not by choice" Vegetarian and this is the BEST Christmas gift I could have been given! Due to a major health issue most of my stomach was removed. I can no longer digest meat! But I can tolerate some of the oils/grease. I am making these as my own Christmas Gift! Thank you Kevin!
These bacon gingersnap cookies are looking yummy, i will defiantly try it my home and update here about outcome.
So happy to see that you tried my recipe, are these not THE best? Kevin, I've been a long time fan, so this made my day. Happy Holidays!
Kevin | Keviniscooking: The bacon in gingersnaps is THE best! Such a great idea! Happy Holidays!
I see to add candied/crystallized ginger but I don’t see it in list of ingredients. Also, the picture appears to have sugar or something on the top. What is it?
There are some options with this recipe; you can add chopped candied ginger and you can roll the balls of dough in large grained sugar. I have tidied up the recipe to better indicate this. That is strip open bacon on top of the one in the back! 🙂