Cookie season is in full holiday swing. The Star-Telegram just announced the winner of this year's Very Merry Cookie Challenge, Chai Snickerdoodles by Andrea Hicks of Keller.
Sounds a little like a baking mashup, which made me start to think of other flavor mashups that I could try. Bacon pecan comes to mind, mainly because I have some pecan trees out back and I just smoked up some homemade bacon.
The only problem with cookies and me is that I am not really into sweets. It is probably my wife’s biggest disappointment with me. All these meals I fix, and no desserts. (Well, she married me, so I guess she is use to disappointments by now.)
So these cookies are going to be savory, not sweet. Plus, I am going to bake these cookies on my grill using hickory wood, because that's just the way I roll.
Bacon Pecan Cookies
I looked around the Internet for some savory cookie ideas and came across a bunch of recipes that used a cup of flour, a stick of butter, a half pound of a soft cheese, an egg and a cup of pecans. I even found one recipe that had bacon added to the mix. I ended up sticking pretty close to this ratio with a few savory touches of my own.
- 5 slices of bacon, finely chopped
- 1 cup shelled pecans
- 1 large egg
- 1 stick unsalted butter (1/2 cup)
- ½ pound blue or cream cheese
- 1 cup all-purpose flour
- 1 tablespoon minced fresh thyme and chives
- 1 teaspoon fresh cracked pepper
Preheat oven or grill to 350ºF and toast pecans on baking sheet for 5 to 7 minutes.
Finely chop toasted pecans
In pan over medium high heat fry bacon until crisp. Save the bacon drippings.
With mixer, cream cheese, butter, bacon drippings, pepper and thyme and chives.
Add egg, flour, bacon and pecans and mix another 2 to 5 minutes to make dough.
Refrigerate dough for 30 minutes.
While dough is in the refrigerator, preheat oven or grill to 350ºF
Line baking sheet with parchment paper. Scoop cookie dough into round tablespoon size balls and place on parchment paper, leaving 2 to 3 inches between each ball of dough.
Flatten the balls of dough with a fork or spoon. You will need to dip the fork in flour to keep it from sticking to the dough balls.
Bake till golden brown, around 20 to 25 minutes, then let cool.
The cookies turned out great!
My wife loved them, even though they were not sweet. Best of all, I think these will go pretty good with beer.
Be sure to check out the slideshow above for step-by-step pictures.
Also check out this video of the winning Chai Snickerdoodles cookies being made.
