Bacon Chocolate Chip Cookies

Bacon.... Chocolate.... Cookie.
I mean where could you go wrong?
I have wanted to put bacon into a dessert... I always thought it would be a cupcake first but once I saw this recipe on trusty Pintrest I knew I had to try them.  I am a huge fan of salty and sweet so I knew I would love these.  And of course I sent some in a package to my long lost starving boyfriend in Northern Manitoba and he seems to be pretty pleased with them as well.

For the candied bacon:

• 8 slices of thick cut bacon (I used more)
• 1/2 cup brown sugar

For the cookies:

• 2 1/4 cup flour
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 3/4 cup melted butter, slightly cooled
• 1/2 cup white sugar
• 1 cup brown sugar
• 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
• 1 whole egg
• 1 egg yolk
• 2 cups chocolate chips

Preheat the oven to 350F.
Place bacon on a tinfoil-lined baking sheet (if you have one with a lip I would suggest that because otherwise the bacon grease will drip EVERYWHERE).
Sprinkle bacon with brown sugar and bake for 18-25 minutes, flipping after 10 minutes.
Remove from oven and place on wire rack for cooling.

Reduce the oven to 325F for the cookies.
Sift flour and baking soda, set aside.
Cream together butter, eggs and sugar.
Add vanilla and beat until light a creamy.
Add flour and baking soda and mis well.
Stir in chocolate chip and broken up bacon.
Bake for 13-15 minutes.

Next up... Bacon Cupcakes of some sort or Bacon Maple Ice cream !!!


Oh and next on the countdown to Osheaga playlist:

Ben Howard - The Fear

Cranberry White Chocolate Granola Bars

I've wanted to try to make granola bars on my own for a very long time now.  Something I knew would  be fairly simple but just never got around to doing.  But now I am very glad I did.

These bars start with a very simple base of ingredients and then you can add in whatever else you would like.

Start with:

• 1 cup rice cereal 
• 2 cups of QUICK rolled oats
• 1/2 cup brown sugar
• 1/4 cup honey
• 1/4 cup butter
• 1 tsp. vanilla

You combine the honey, butter and brown sugar in a pot over the stove and heat it until boiling.  Meanwhile, mix the rice cereal and rolled oats in a large bowl.  Once the honey/butter/sugar has started to boil, you may remove it from the heat and pour it over the cereal and rolled oats.  Stir until evenly coated and then this is when you add any of your add-ons that will not melt (dried fruit, nuts, coconut, etc.).  You pour this mixture while it is still warm over wax or parchment paper and begin to press it down as hard as you can into a flat rectangle.  Once it has partially cooled, you can press chocolate chips on the top.  Leave this until completely cooled and then cut into bars of desired size.

I can't wait to make a dark chocolate and coconut version.  Or maybe a s'mores version like I used to eat when I was a little kid.
I think it would also be neat to do a chocolate drizzle or dunk the bottom in melted chocolate.

Can't wait to mess around with this recipe to make a bunch of different variations!