HOWEVER, I did make cookies last week that got oohs and aahs and were much more local than I realized. Hurray! They’re based on a recipe from Joy the Baker, which is a fantastic blog/book that will fill all your indulgent dessert needs. These peanut butter, bacon, chocolate chunk cookies are free of gluten, dairy, and soy – all no-nos for me at the moment because of migraines and breastfeeding – but I swear that you won’t even notice because peanut butter, BACON, and chocolate. ‘Nuff said.

No pictures because I ate them too quickly. Oops!

Peanut Butter, Bacon, Chocolate Chunk Cookies

Makes 2 dozen

Directions

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
2. Line a rimmed baking sheet with foil (helps with clean up) and lay out the bacon strips in a single layer. Roast for 15 minutes or until really crisp. Don’t let it burn, but make sure it’s not chewy. I didn’t cook mine thoroughly enough, so my cookies had a textural disadvantage. Set it aside and let it cool a bit. Don’t turn off the oven.
3. Mix the peanut butter and 1 cup of sugar together, like you’re creaming regular butter and sugar.
4. Add in the molasses, egg, baking soda, and nutmeg, and mix well.
5. Once the bacon is cool enough to handle, chop it coarsely. It’s nice if the bacon and chocolate are about the same size, but don’t go nuts.
6. Gently mix the bacon and chocolate chunks into the dough.
7. Put the reserved 1/2 cup of sugar in a wide bowl.
8. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper (or coat well with nonstick spray).
9. Take about 1 tablespoon of dough, compress it in your hands to make a (very) free form ball, roll the ball in sugar, and place on the prepared baking sheet. The dough will be crumbly, so just do your best to smash it into a golf-ball-sized cookie. Repeat with the rest of the dough. The cookies don’t really spread, so you can put them pretty close together and fit all 24 on one baking sheet.
10. Bake for 10 minutes or until browned a bit.
11. Immediately after the cookies come out of the oven, use the tines of a fork to add that characteristic peanut butter cookie cross hatch pattern. You won’t get a clear print on each cookie, but it will serve to flatten them out nicely. Let cool for 5 minutes and then transfer to a wire rack to cool down all the way.