Bacon Fat Chocolate Chunk Cookies
With the soaring prices of bacon and other processed pork products, it’s good to know that the bacon you ate for breakfast can also be used to make a rich and delicious sweet treat.
Using rendered bacon fat in cooking and baking is good to reduce kitchen waste by utilizing the pork product to its fullest potential. Typically, I will save any rendered bacon fat that comes from cooking it. I’ve used it for various soups and even salad dressings but I never thought to use it in a sweeter application. That is until I was reading up on vintage recipes. A few recipes from the 1950’s inspired me to use my reserved bacon fat instead of butter in these chocolate chunk cookies. The results were very surprising.
The cookies are a nice chewy cookie with a slightly crispy exterior. It vaguely smells like smoked bacon but not in an off putting way, it’s reminiscent of chocolate covered bacon. The taste is delectable with a very rich and salty flavor. I would even go to say that it may be slightly a bit richer than butter. It definitely makes the cookie feel a bit naughtier like you shouldn’t really be eating it. However, you are because they are absolutely delicious and they are really hard to resist. Now I’m going to utter a phrase I’d never thought I’d ever say. Grab your aprons and reserved bacon fat, let’s bake some cookies!
Bacon Fat Chocolate Chunk Cookies
½ cup reserved bacon fat, cold
½ cup dark brown sugar
½ cup granulated sugar
1 large egg
2 tsp vanilla
2 TBSP whole milk
¾ tsp baking soda
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 bar of milk chocolate, 3 oz.; chopped
1 bar of dark chocolate, 3 oz.; chopped
Maldon salt, optional
Preheat the oven to 350°F and line two baking sheets with parchment or silpat.
In a stand mixer, cream together bacon fat and your sugars. Beat them together until the mixture is fluffy.
Add your egg, vanilla and whole milk beat until combined.
Mix in the baking soda and flour until fully incorporated.
Chop your chocolate into bite sized chunks and fold into your cookie dough.
Roll cookie dough into balls that are about 2 tablespoons worth of dough and place on your cookie sheets an inch apart.
Bake for 10-12 minutes or until the cookies are lightly golden on the edges. The middle of the cookie should be a little underdone, if you bake them until the whole cookie is set they will be overbaked.
Once baked, you can top your hot cookies with a sprinkle of Maldon salt if desired.
Remove the cookies from the pan and cool completely on a wire rack before storing your cookies in an airtight container for up to a week.