Oatmaiale Cookies (Not For Vegetarians...Maiale Is Pork In Italian. Think Bacon.)

Category: Desserts & Sweets | Blog URL: http://bellyuptotheblog.com/blog

This recipe was entered in The Foodista Best of Food Blogs Cookbook contest, a compilation of the world’s best food blogs which was published in Fall 2010.

Photo: Hillary Thrasher

Ingredients

6 strips of bacon

1/2 cup brown sugar (3.5 oz) plus ¼ cup (1.75 oz)

1 tablespoon maple syrup

18 tablespoons unsalted butter (softened but still cool)

1 cup white granulated sugar (7 oz)

1 large egg

1 teaspoon vanilla

1 cup (5 oz) of unbleached AP flour

3/4 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

2 1/2 cups whole grain rolled oats (not instant)

Optional ingredients: dried cherries, milk or semi-sweet cho

Preparation

To make candied bacon...(hat tip: Not So Humble Pie) Par-cook bacon to render fat and pat off excess grease; Mix maple syrup with brown sugar and rub to coat the bacon (make sure it's cool enough to handle). Place bacon on a parchment-lined cookie sheet, dust with remaining sugar mixture and bake in a 350 degree pre-heated over for 14 minutes (flipping bacon half-way through the cooking time). Transfer parchment off the cookie sheet and let the bacon cool. When the candied bacon has set-up (cool and the sugars have solidified), pulse coarsely in a food processor (going to a bite-sized bit roughly the same size as a chip or raisin).

Optional: toast 2-1/2 cups of oats in a large dry skillet until light brown and they give off a nutty aroma. Set aside to cool for later.

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees and make sure your rack is in the middle position. Proceed with steps 4 through 10 (hat tip: Cook's Illustrated)

To a stand mixer with paddle attachment, whip butter with 1 cup white granulated sugar and 1/4 light brown sugar until fluffy.

Add one egg and the vanilla -- mix until well blended (30 seconds).

To the flour, whisk in baking soda, baking powder and salt. Add the flour mixture to beaten butter (on low) until fully incorporated.

Gradually add oats (whether toasted or raw), followed by candied bacon bits and any additional "mix-ins" (in this case, about 1/2 pint of dried cherries and slightly less than 1/2 bag milk chocolate chips) -- just until the ingredients are incorporated throughout the dough.

Scoop out about 2 tablespoons of cookie dough and roll into a ball; then make a "paddy cake" by pressing the dough ball relatively flat between your palms (about one centimeter or 1/4 inch thick) and place on a cookie sheet lined with parchment. Cookies will spread a bit, so space accordingly.

Optional: sprinkle tops with a few flecks of Maldon or any kind of sea salt you have in the pantry.

Check cookies at 12 minutes but could bake as long as 15 depending on how you like them.

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Comments

Permalink Linda Thrasher
March 1, 2010

This recipe is delicious!

Permalink Janet Williams
March 1, 2010

These treats will be in my belly this weekend!

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About

Oatmaiale Cookies

by Hillary on February 26, 2010

For a short period of time as a child, Mother sent me to a tennis coach. I don’t remember the lessons so much as I remember the breakfast she made me every Saturday morning—oatmeal with brown sugar, raisins, chocolate chips and milk with a side of bacon (apparently she equated 60 minutes of rec tennis with running the Boston Marathon).

Fast forward 30 years (and slow down my metabolism by as much), I still crave the concept of this meal but not the pasty texture that seizes into a congealed ball as oatmeal cools. When DC was socked in by a blizzard and clearly I was nostalgic for comfort food (see the fluff posting), I came up with the idea for this cookie. Granted there’s nothing “unique” about an oatmeal cookie, but an oatmeal cookie with bacon…now we’re cookin’.