Peanut Butter Bacon Cookies (and a dog video!)

Happy 2013! It has been far too long since my last blog adventures and to those who read this, I am so sorry! Since my last post I started a new job as kitchen manager at Pleasant Pops Farmhouse Market and Cafe. As the name implies it is an amazing store that is part cafe, part coffee shop, part local market and all delicious. Part of my job running the kitchen has been coming up with recipes for our lunch and dinner menu. As much as I have wanted to share all the amazing soups, salads and sandwiches I have come up with the pesky business of business has prevented me from doing so! I have loved my job, but there is also something about cooking all day that makes cooking for fun (or for a blog) less appealing at the end of the day.

No more! 2013 is a return of a great many things I hold near and dear to my heart. I will cook more, share more and most importantly blog more! In a few days I will be returning to grad school to complete my degree in international development which means I will be part time at my job giving me more mental space to cook for fun and blog about it. With that said, I still hope any of you that are local will come check out Pleasant Pops. Your taste buds will thank you.

January 1st, 2013 wasn't just the start of this year, but also the "birthday" of a somewhat recent friend of mine. Her name is Coco. I could try to describe her, but why tell when I can show, right?

I stole this picture of her from the
dictionary definition of adorable.

Coco entered my life about six months ago at the same time as her absolutely beautiful, amazing, funny and smart owner who happens to be my girlfriend: Caitlin. How lucky can a boy get! A girlfriend and a dog...2012 was pretty wonderful.

So why am I talking about Coco on my cooking blog? Well for her birthday I decided to bring back a recipe I've been working on throughout 2012 and bake her some peanut butter bacon cookies for her birthday. If you don't have a dog in your life I urge you to keep reading! You see, even though I made these cookies with dogs in mind, I can't stop eating them myself. I mean what's not to like?

Peanut butter? yum!
Bacon? delicious!
Cookies? Yes please!

My inspiration was a basic peanut butter cookie. After some research I found out dogs are naturally gluten intolerant, dairy sensitive and even more sensitive to excessive sugar than humans are. With that in mind I replaced the butter with bacon fat, cut out some sugar and turned the cookies gluten free by using oat flour and adding xanthum gum.

What I was left with was a delicious peanut butter cookie with a hint of bacon flavor that was irresistible to all the dogs who tried it and alluring to all the bacon loving humans out there too.

If you're wondering how Coco like her cookies, see for yourself:

Peanut Butter Bacon Cookies (a.k.a. Coco Cookies)

by Leran Minc

Cook Time: 10 minutes

Keywords: bake dessert dog treat gluten-free bacon peanut butter cookie

Ingredients (Approximately 15 cookies)

• 1/3 cup sugar
• 1/3 cup brown sugar
• 1/2 cup bacon fat, melted (see below for instructions)
• 1 egg
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 1/4 cup oat flour or gluten-free flour (see below for instructions)
• 1/2 teaspoon xanthum gum
• 3/4 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/4 teaspoon salt

Instructions

For cookies

1. Whisk together sugar, bacon fat and eggs until creamy. Mix in vanilla extract

2. Mix together dry ingredients

3. Stir the dry ingredients into the wet. Since you're not using glutenous flour over mixing is less of a concern.

4. Cover and refrigerate for at least 3 hours. This step will allow the moisture in the cookie dough to redistribute more evenly. You can skip this step, but I think it's worth the wait.

5. Preheat oven to 375°F.

6. Line a cookie sheet with parchment paper. Measure about 2 tablespoons worth of cookie dough and using either a disher or a spoon and your hands roll out balls. Press the balls down to form cookie shapes. These cookies won't collapse and like some cookies so you need to help them out. They will spread though so make sure to keep a few inches between cookies.

7. Bake on 375°F for 9 to 10 minutes. Transfer cookies to a cooling rack. They may be extremely soft at first so be careful, but don't be fooled! They will harden as they cool so don't make my mistake and over bake them.

You can also freeze these. I would suggest rolling out the balls and placing them on a cookie sheet on parchment paper in the freezer. Give enough space for air to flow between them. Once frozen you can transfer them to a container or a freezer bag. Just let them thaw enough to press into cookie shapes before baking.

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