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.