Peanut Butter and Bacon Cookies

The other day I put a notice out there on Facebook that I was looking for a good peanut butter cookie recipe…One of my childhood friends, Andrew, responded with a recipe for Peanut Butter and Bacon Cookies. Seriously? Yes, very seriously… I haven’t had the guts (or the bacon) to make them. If you do, please share your experience. Here’s the recipe:

Peanut Butter and Bacon Cookies

makes about 4 dozen

The texture of these cookies is dense and chewy but still tender. Ideally, use stabilized peanut butter (there are organic brands like Once Again Nut Butter which are perfect for these cookies) or, if you prefer, natural-style brands– just be sure to stir the peanut butter well before incorporating it in to the dough.

10 ounces bacon (about 10 strips), cooked till crisp and then crumbled

1/4 cup (2 ounces) reserved bacon fat, cool enough to be solid

3/4 cup (6 ounces) unsalted butter

1 cup (7 ounces) granulated sugar

1 cup (8 ounces) dark brown sugar

2 large eggs

1 tsp vanilla

2 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp table salt

1 cup (9 1/2 ounces) peanut butter, chunky or smooth

3 cups (12 3/4 ounces) all-purpose flour

1 cup roasted salted peanuts, roughly chopped

1 Tablespoon granulated sugar

1 tsp fine sea salt

Preheat the oven to 350ºF.

Cream the bacon fat, butter, and sugars until light and fluffy. Add in the eggs, vanilla, baking soda, and salt and combine well. Mix in the peanut butter. Stir in flour until just combined. Add in peanuts and bacon crumbles and mix until they are evenly distributed.

Scoop heaping tablespoons of dough about 2 inches apart on a parchment- or Silpat-lined baking sheet. For each cookie, take a dinner fork and dip the tines in the granulated sugar; press the tines into a ball of cookie dough, creating an impression. Rotate fork 90º and press the tines into the dough again, creating a criss-cross pattern. Sprinkle each cookie with a small pinch of sea salt.

Bake for 10-12 minutes, rotating pan once during baking.

Allow cookies to cool slightly before moving them to a cooling rack.

Then hand one to your houseguest and call his cardiologist.