peanut butter espresso cookies with candied bacon

A conversation I had a while ago about candied bacon chocolate chip cookies sparked the idea of baking a batch of my peanut butter espresso cookies and stirring in chopped candied bacon.

At first, the idea of bacon in cookies sounds repulsive. I don't like when syrup touches bacon, so I wasn't sure what I would think of however this turned out.

The first step is to candy the bacon. To do this, you place strips of bacon on a parchment-lined rimmed baking sheet and sprinkle with brown sugar. You then bake for about 30 minutes total.

The bacon needs to be a deep brownish-red color in order for the bacon to harden when cooled. The bacon in the picture actually wasn't cooked long enough and never got crispy, so I stuck it back in the oven to cook a bit longer.

You want the bacon crispy, no chewy, so it won't be difficult to chop into pieces.

I decreased the chocolate chips to 1/2 cup and stirred in the bacon, 10 strips worth. My initial thoughts was, "Ew, I just bit into bacon." After a while, though, I didn't really feel like it made the cookie taste bad, and it was actually rather nice. My dad thought it tasted like oatmeal.

The cons, however, is that the amazing texture of the candied bacon wasn't present in the cookie. The pieces you bit into weren't crunchy, but chewy. I think if I had coated the bacon in chocolate, let it harden, then used that in place of the chocolate chips the flavor might have remained and created an even better cookie. But the subtle bacon with the coffee coating was rather good in its own way.

As an alternative, you can also sprinkle candied bacon on roasted Brussels sprouts, green bean casserole, salads, and mashed potatoes. Or oatmeal.

I'm entering this to Lisa's "Sweets for Saturday".

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Candied Bacon
Recipe adapted from Pete Bakes!

ingredients -

Strips of bacon (I used ten)
Brown sugar
1 recipe Peanut Butter Espresso Cookies

directions -

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line a rimmed baking sheet with parchment paper. Place strips of bacon flat on sheet, making sure they don't overlap. Sprinkle each slice with about 2 tablespoons of brown sugar, rubbing it in a bit.


2. Cook for 15 minutes. Flip bacon over, dragging slices in syrup. Continue cooking for another 15-17 minutes, or until the bacon is a deep mahogany color. Remove from oven and let cool slightly. Transfer bacon to a cooling rack to cool completely. Coarsely chop into pieces, or leave whole (if you don't think you'll resist).