When I had the inspiration for this bacon cookie, because, well, who doesn't love bacon, I did what any aspiring recipe writer would do. I googled bacon cookies to see if someone had come up with this before. Possibly not surprisingly, some people had. However, I had to think if they were really all that good I would have seen them somewhere. In bakeries, on the food network, somewhere. To date, I have not seen bacon cookies made or sold anywhere. So, I decided to try my hand at it and come up with something a little different.
The base of this cookie is the German Heidesand (sand) cookie that I learned to make when I was probably about six years old from my German Nanny when we lived in the tiny hamlet of Dunzweiler, Germany. They are possibly the reason I love cookies so much. Hands down, I can't think of a more perfect cookie and every year when I make them for Christmas they are a huge hit and the first gobbled up. Growing up we would make such large batches of these cookies that we'd have them in the freezer all year long, just in case the craving struck. They freeze really really well. As in, I've had Heidesand cookies that we lost in the deep freeze that were probably in there for two years and they still tasted amazing. I wouldn't recommend doing that, but you know, just in case. The secret to Heidesand cookies is twofold. One, they are made with browned butter, in itself one of mankind's best inventions. Two, they generally have vanilla sugar instead of extract which adds remarkably to the flavor and texture, making them dry and crumbly, hence the sand part. Now, for my bacon cookies I decided that browned butter was a must, and that the texture of Heidesand cookies would be really good too, crumbly, like bacon. The only problem was that I didn't really think vanilla and bacon would work. Then EUREKA! Maple extract! Maple bacon is possibly even better than bacon bacon, and maple is a good flavor for baking. It all started to fall into place. One problem. Although quite prevalent growing up, somehow maple extract has become really hard to find. At least anywhere near Vienna, VA. I had to go to four stores to find it and I actually had people ask me what it was! Thing is, maple syrup just wouldn't work for this, it would ruin the texture of the cookie, I needed the extract to get that true strong maple flavor. I almost ordered some from Amazon, but then of all places I found some at Target. Stupid grocery stores not having maple extract! It delayed me making these for over a week!
Anyway, what resulted from the combination of my all-time favorite cookie from childhood, plus bacon and maple, well, that you will have to make sometime and see for yourself. In my opinion, original Heidesand cookies are hard to beat, but these, well, these have bacon. Enough said?
Bacon Maple Sand Cookies
4 sticks of butter (real butter NOT margarine)
2 cups granulated sugar
4 1/4 cups flour
1/3 cup powdered sugar
1 cup (or more if you want) of maple bacon, cooked (see below) and chopped really really tiny
2 tsp maple extract
Bacon fat :)
The easiest way to make these cookies is to prepare the butter the day before, that way there isn't any waiting around and the rest goes pretty quickly. So, the day before, melt the butter on the stove and brown it lightly. This takes some time and attention. It takes probably ten minutes to get the butter to the point where it starts browning and you have to watch it carefully or it could burn and turn black. It also tends to bubble over while boiling so I recommend starting out in a deep pot and standing over it to blow on it and remove it from the heat if it starts to bubble over. Cleaning up melted butter form a stove-top is no fun. When the butter starts turning brown, it will look like brown sediment swirling around the bottom, turn off the stove and remove it from the heat. Transfer the butter to some kind of storage bowl, cover, and put it in the fridge till the next day when you are ready to bake. The butter needs to get solid again to use.
Bacon: The best way to make bacon by far is to put it on a baking sheet with a lip, not a flat one, that has been covered in tin foil, and put it in a 350 degree oven for about twenty minutes or until nice and brown and crispy. You don't have to turn it, you don't have to think about it, you don't have to get splattered with bacon fat. It's also the easiest way to clean up after. If you want to keep the bacon fat drain it from the pan into a bowl and let it cool, if not bundle up the tin foil and throw it away, no icky frying pan to clean. Bacon this way always comes out perfectly. For this recipe I used about 12 pieces of bacon and reserved about a tablespoon of the fat. When the bacon is done put it on a paper towel to drain and cool down. Then crumble first with your hands, and then finely chop to reach the right consistency.
When the butter is solid, break it up into chunks and put it in your mixer to beat until creamy and light. (Notice Connor's hand in the picture, see he helps!)Add the cooled bacon fat while getting creamy. Add the granulated sugar and maple extract, beat for five minutes to help the sugar and butter blend. Add the flour in increments, mixing after each addition. Add the powdered sugar at the end if the dough still seems too soft. The dough should be crumbly but hold together if you squeeze it. Add the bacon :)
Once you have your finished dough proceed to make logs. This is easiest by measuring out five (that's how many logs I made with this recipe) 20" pieces of wax paper, and five 20" pieces of tin foil. Divide the dough into five large handfulls. Put one handfull onto the center of the waxed paper longwise and shape into a log. Martha Stewart taught me a trick (yes, personally!) that to get the logs to come out round, fold the wax paper over your log and then put a ruler against the edge and pull the wax paper tight against the ruler, it pulls the dough in tight and rounded. Next roll your log up snug and twist the ends of the wax paper, if you are baking these soon there is no need for the tin foil, but if you intend to freeze them then cover the logs with tinfoil. Put in the fridge or freezer. If you want to bake them that day, leave the logs in the fridge for an hour. If not, like I said...two years!
When you want to bake them unroll the wax paper and cut cookies about 1/4" -1/3" thick. Place on parchment lined cookie sheet, they do not grow so they can be close together. Each log should make about 30 cookies, which you can and will eat in one sitting. Bake at 350 degrees for about 12-15 minutes or until slightly gold brown. The house will smell delectable. Do not remove from the parchment paper too soon! These cookies are crumbly and need to cool to hold together. You can slide the cookie baring parchment onto the counter but don't pick the actual cookies up or move them for at least five minutes. This is hard, this is very hard, you will want to eat them, but wait, it's worth it, plus they will burn your tongue, this from personal experience. Gets me ever damn time!
Serve, well alone. Maybe coffee? Milk? They are just so good I can't think of anything to go with them that would improve them. These are Bacon cookies the way they were intended by the Bacon Gods to be made. Go in peace and may you always have bacon in your home!
