Bacon Mania!!!

A wise woman once told me that any good recipe starts with "fry a pound of bacon."  That woman was my mother, and she was absolutely correct.  Or so I thought.

There has been an upsurge lately in Bacon Mania.  I don't really know why, except I do know bacon is absolutely fabulous.  I could eat bacon everyday (although, my lifespan would probably be greatly diminished.)

People have started eating bacon salt, maple bacon donuts, and chocolate covered bacon.  There's even a vodka distillery which makes bacon vodka.  

I just can't imagine that would make a very good cocktail.  

I got a new Kitchenaid stand mixer for Christmas and hadn't used it yet because I wasn't quite sure what I wanted to make for it's debut.  We were well stocked on sweets after Christmas, so I haven't really had a need to bake.  Since I'm off work today, I decided to browse for some cookie recipes.

One of my high school best friends is having a dessert reception following her wedding in February with a cookie table.  I thought it would be nice to come up with some fun ideas for cookies I could bring.  I did find some perfect ones, but I also found some interesting ones.  I read a lot of food and baking blogs, and in my search I stumbled upon Peanut Butter Bacon Cookies.  Weird, but intriguing.

I like peanut butter, ok.  I'm in the camp that it is better paired with a friend like chocolate or jelly. So maybe being paired with bacon would work.  

After looking over the ingredients, I realized I had all 6 necessary components.  So why not?  It'd make for an interesting debut recipe for my mixer.

Egg, pb, bacon, brown sugar, white sugar, baking soda 

Ingredients: 

1 cup all-natural chunky or smooth creamy butter

1 cup sugar (1/2 cup brown sugar and 1/2 cup granulated sugar)

1 egg

1 tsp baking soda

About 6 slices of bacon, cooked, cooled and diced

Directions:

1) Cook bacon, let cool.  Crumble.  (I encourage you to cook one too many pieces, so you can munch while you bake!)

2) Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

3) Grease a baking sheet with butter and set aside.

4) In a mixer combine peanut butter and both sugars until well combined, about 2 minutes.  Add egg and baking soda and mix for another 2 minutes.  Fold in cooked bacon.  

5) Roll into walnut sized balls and criss-cross with a fork (make roll ball in sugar before criss-cross.)  

6) Bake for 10 minutes, until lightly browned.  Cool.

They weren't awful.  They weren't great.  They were just weird more than anything.  I don't think I would make them again, but I don't regret trying.  I think they could be better with some chocolate chips.  Just to spice of the weirdness.