STILL NEW YORK-HUNGRY

6. Umami Chocolate Chip Cookies

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Ha! You already thought I've gone completely bonkers after "pimping" the Classic to "36. Chocolate – Potato Chip – Cookies" , don't you, right?

Hm, weeeeell... Nope!

You can always do something whackier.

So it happened that due to a lot of emotional work – mourning and decluttering – I wanted cookies, Chocolate Chip, to be exact.

So far, so normal.

So I downsized the recipe from the Chocolate-Chip-Cookie recipe included in "52. CHRISTMAS COOKIES"  – using the amount of chocolate needed – to a third of the original amount. But even then, I still had only half the amount of chocolate I needed – 1.75 instead of 3.5 oz.

Since in most cookie recipes the ratio dough vs. "addition" should be kept for best results, I needed 1.75 oz. of something else. Since it was short before my weekly grocery shopping, the fridge was empty, except for the food for the rest of the day and...

No, you can't do THAT! Are you FECKING crazy?

Why. The. Heck. NOT?

And I did... I committed the lardy sacrilege.




Yes, you're reading right – I "filled" the missing part with sliced bacon. Cut it into mini cubes, fat and all... and, of course, the cookies looked accordingly: like slightly burned Dalí clocks. One molten together mess of cookie dough, chocolate and lard.

There you go with your crazy brain fart. I told you!

Shut up, they're fecking yummy!

And, dude, they were ... so yummy, in fact, that I changed the work hypothesis and baked them once more! This time I used 2/3 of the original recipe, including 3.5 oz. each of dark chocolate and lard SANS fat.

And what can I say?

Real cookies reeking with chocolate and lard chunks, smelling and tasting divinely and really chewy.

Yeah, maybe Kitchen Satan possessed me or I had a short circuit in my head, but that was one of the fracking yummiest ideas I ever had.

Although after that first batch I could understand why no one else seemed to have tried those before.

Aha, you're hooked? Yeah, it's the bacon, I know.

So off to the kitchen!



Serves: 36 cookies The "adjusted" recipe. The first one only made 10, or so.

Prep Time: 2 - 2.5 hrs Including refrigerating & baking

Degree of Difficulty: Easy



WE NEED

165 gr / 5.9 oz. butter
165 gr / 5.9 oz. brown sugar
pinch salt
1 / 2 egg(s) 1 large or 2 medium-sized eggs. I used 1 Big One.
1 tsp vanilla sugar
1 tsp baking powder
235 gr / 8.25 oz. floured nuts I used 3.5 oz. almonds & 4.75 oz. hazelnuts
100 gr / 3.5 oz. dark chocolate 70% cocoa
100 gr / 3.5 oz. lean bacon All visible fat cut off!



WE DO

1. Line baking trays with baking paper. Chop the chocolate. With 70% cocoa. Cut the fat off the bacon slices and chop it into very small cubes.

2. Beat butter, sugar, vanilla sugar + salt until very frothy, then add the egg(s (singly). Finally, mix in flour + baking powder until the dough's smooth. Fold in the chocolate + bacon and refrigerate the dough for at least 1 hour. Since it was suddenly 10 PM, although perceived five minutes earlier it had yet been 7:30 PM, I let it in the fridge overnight. No problem!

3. Preheat the oven to 190°C / 370°F top-/bottom heat. Shape the dough into inch-sized balls and put them on the trays with some distance – better even: more distance as due to the heightened fat content they might spread more than usual. Gently press them (not fully!) flat. Temporarily store the remaining cookies / tray in the fridge while the first tray of cookies is in the oven. It's better for texture, too. When you put the chilled cookies into the oven, the bacon's fat doesn't make them disintegrate.

4. Bake cookies for 12-15 minutes until light brown, then set them on wire racks to cool.

Set a few aside for yourself as your family / friends / clients will rip 'em out of your hands. Oh, and wash your hands after enjoying as they're greasy little buggers!



Guten Hunger!