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Thursday, March 1, 2012

Bacon oatmeal cookies: a recipe

Bacon oatmeal cookies
Yep, bacon cookies.

Read it again: Bacon. Cookies.

Your eyes are not deceiving you.

Now check outside to make sure this isn't the rapture or anything, because these cookies are purt-near cookie perfection. If you thought the salted oatmeal cookies were wicked, hold on to your hat.

In the words of Mr. Ninj, "These cookies are an EVENT!"

Regular readers know that it tends to be pork-o-palooza around here (love me some sausage!), so of course I've been thrilled to see bacon showing up as the new new thing in many of the recipe magazines. Bacon martinis, bacon lollipops, bacon ice cream ... why not bacon cookies?

As with the salted oatmeal cookies, don't waste these on children (if you give one to a child and s/he says, "Eeew, raisins!" or anything like that, I will personally travel to your house to smack you). These are grown-up treats, with that oh-so-hard-to-attain balance of sweet and savory, soft and crunchy.

But, not only are they mature cookies, they are also not really dessert cookies. Whatchya talkin' bout, Ninj? you may be saying (I can hear you, you know). They are, in fact, perfect breakfast cookies -- and not only because there is no frosting involved. Moreover, they are equally as heavenly in the afternoon with a nice cup of tea.



Each cookie is quite large (basically you should just eat one per sitting, if you have good bacon willpower); if you modify the recipe to make them smaller, you might need to adjust the cooking time a bit.



So go ahead and enjoy some bacon bacon bacon. As always, pin it if you love it!

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Bacon Oatmeal Cookies (adapted slightly from a recipe by Autumn Martin of Seattle's Hot Cakes Cakery that appeared in the March 2012 issue of Bon Appetit.)

Note: The dough requires some chilling before baking.

Ingredients:
6-7 ounces thick-cut bacon slices, cooked and crumbled
2 1/4 cups flour
1 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. kosher or sea salt
1/2 tsp. baking soda
1 cup packed brown sugar (dark is best)
2/3 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup butter, at room temperature
2 eggs
1/2 tsp. vanilla
1 cup old-fashioned oats
2/3 cup raisins

Directions:
Mix the flour, baking powder, salt and baking soda in a bowl and set aside. In a stand mixer, beat the sugars and the butter until blended. Add eggs one at a time, mixing well each time. Add the vanilla and beat the mixer until light-colored and fluffy (this took about 3-4 minutes). Add the dry ingredients and mix well. Add the bacon, oats and raisins and mix thoroughly.

Form the dough into balls using a 1/4-cup measuring cup (yes, this is a BIG dough ball) and place on parchment-lined cookie sheets about 3 inches apart. Chill for at least one hour. (Since I live in Vermont, it's winter and I have a crappily small refrigerator, I put my cookie sheets in the unheated garage -- chills them perfectly!)

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Bake the cookies, one sheet at a time, until the edges begin to brown but the centers are still a bit soft, about 20 minutes in my oven. Let the cookies cool on the sheet for 10 minutes, then transfer them to a rack to cool completely.

I'm not even going to tell you how long to store them because you will eat them all in a day or two.

18 comments:

  1. I have to say this kind of freaks me out. It just does. Bacon? Raisins? I don't think I can do it. I am not a doubter, but rather a coward.

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  2. You KNOW I'd never steer you wrong, Robyn! Next time I see you I'll bring a batch and you can see for yourself.

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  3. WHAT? Bacon? Cookies? EWWWWW. Seriously. This can't be good.

    Although, on second thought, if I envision this more like a biscuit and leave out the nasty raisins I can see it. I think if you change the name it might be easier to accept.

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  4. You could easily leave out the raisins. Trust me, they are SO good!

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  5. I wouldn't doubt.. DON'T FEAR BACON. It makes you favorite treats have the perfect amount of sweet and salty.. maple bacon is best to use.. ps if you haven't tried bacon chocolate bars you should! This recipe sounds great I am so trying it!

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  6. Thanks for the bacon love, Lacey! And maple bacon is a great idea.

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  7. It would just be more wrong than wrong to substitute chocolate chips for the raisins, wouldn't it? I'm going to hell just for thinking it.
    I'm going to try it with cranberries first.

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  8. It would be super-decadent with chips -- the raisins help to justify it as a breakfast cookie. :-) But dried cranberries sound awesome! Let me know how it turns out.

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  9. My only regret right now is that I didn't bake them in the morning so I could have mine with a hot cup of coffee.

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  10. and it turns out that I didn't have cranberries in the house, so I went with raisins. But hey, there's my excuse to make them again.

    FWIW, I used applewood smoked bacon.

    Now please excuse me while I go donate all my worldly goods to charity, because otherwise I'm pretty sure I'm going to hell for these. WOW.

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  11. You crack me up, Margaret! Enjoy your bacony breakfast!

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  12. I'm trying them with peanut butter chips today. I feel a little like Elvis...

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  13. Chris: what a freakin' AWESOME idea. And Elvis would be so pleased! Please tell me how they turn out.

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  14. Peanut butter bacon cookies were awesome. Sweet, peanut buttery, bacon goodness. The husband thought I was crazy, but then I found him sneaking one at midnight last night. Needless to say, I'll need more bacon!

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  15. Excellent news, Chris! I am definitely going to try them that way. Time to stock up on bacon...

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  16. I'm going to attempt these today with maple-smoked bacon (and then coating the bacon with cinnamon sugar) and dark chocolate. Wish me luck!

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  17. If you haven't already started, you might want to think about candying the bacon first (see http://yankee-kitchen-ninja.blogspot.com/2012/05/chocolate-ice-cream-with-candied-bacon.html for the how-to!)

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  18. http://fatgirlvsworld.blogspot.com/2012/06/not-for-faint-of-heart-or-faint-of.html

    My results :)

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