Bacon's so popular, they're putting it in Chocolate-Chip cookies

Obsession: Bacon's so popular, they're putting it in Chocolate-Chip cookies







In the cult of bacon, "extreme" is just another word for love – love of sizzle, love of crunch, love of salty, smoky ribbons alternating flesh and fat.



From blogs to bacon-of-the- month, the humble pork belly has inspired its own hickory-hazed zeitgeist.
Bacontarian, Bacon Unwrapped, I Heart Bacon and Mr. Bacon Pants are just a few of the tasty bits in the blogosphere.
Blogger-born Bacon Chocolate-Chip Cookies With Maple-Cinnamon Glaze (pictured) are serious stuff. So is Grateful Palate creator Dan Philips, who's obsessed with all things bacon: microwave pork rinds, bacon brittle, BLT candles.
Food Network mainstay Paula Deen has canonized bacon with such excellently extreme creations as deep-fried, bacon-wrapped mac 'n' cheese.
If you're up Delaware way, Udder Delight Ice Cream House in Rehoboth Beach promises bacon ice cream.
Need more? Bacon Robots promises to send a bacon-cooking robot to your house.
As for ephemera, it's a snap to find bacon gift wrap, bacon wallets, gummy bacon, bacon butter dishes, even a bacon tuxedo and bacon mints on the Internet.
BACON CHOCOLATE-CHIP COOKIES WITH MAPLE-CINNAMON GLAZE
¾ cup butter, softened 2/3 cup packed brown sugar 2/3 cup granulated sugar 1 teaspoon hazelnut or ½ teaspoon almond extract ½ teaspoon vanilla extract 2 eggs 2 ½ cups flour 1 teaspoon baking soda ½ teaspoon salt 1 cup white chocolate chips 1 cup dark or semisweet chocolate chips 2 cups crumbled cooked bacon (about 2 pounds), plus another ½ pound of cooked strips (divided use) Maple-Cinnamon Glaze (recipe follows)
In a large bowl, beat together the butter, sugars, extracts and eggs until creamy. In another bowl, sift together the dry ingredients. Add the dry ingredients to the butter mixture and stir together.
Dough will be slightly soft. If you want a more cakelike cookie, add another 1/2 cup of flour. Mix in chocolate chips and crumbled bacon. Stir until well integrated.
Place dough on a sheet of wax paper and refrigerate at least 1 hour.
Preheat oven to 350 F.
Remove dough from fridge. Pinch off 1 ½ -inch pieces and roll into balls. Set dough balls about 2 inches apart on an ungreased cookie sheet. Flatten dough balls in the center slightly with your fingers. Bake about 10 minutes, or until the dough starts to turn golden brown. Allow cookies to cool on a cooling rack while you make the glaze.
Spread a small amount of glaze on top of each cookie and top with a small piece (1 to 1 ½ inches) of crisp bacon. Makes 3 dozen cookies.
Maple-Cinnamon Glaze: Mix 2 cups powdered sugar, 1 tablespoon maple extract, 1 teaspoon vanilla extract and ½ teaspoon cinnamon with enough water to make a thick glaze, about 3 tablespoons. Mix all ingredients together until smooth and creamy. If lumpy, use a whisk.


PAULA DEEN'S BACON CRISPS
½ cup freshly grated parmesan cheese 1 pound sliced bacon, cut in half 1 sleeve Waverly Wafers or other rectangular, buttery crackers
Preheat oven to 250 F (350 F if you're in a hurry).
Place 1 teaspoon cheese on each cracker and wrap tightly with a strip of bacon. Place the wrapped crackers on a broiler rack on a baking sheet, and put the baking sheet on the oven rack. Bake for 2 hours, or until bacon is done (40 minutes at 350 F). Do not turn.
Drain on paper towels. Serve hot or room temperature.
Makes 24 crisps.


A SAMPLING OF BACON PRODUCTS
Lovelace Café Jalapeño Bacon: Exceptional hickory- smoked, sugar-cured and seasoned strips with jalapeño sass, from the Lovelace Motel Café in Nashville, Tenn. $14.95 plus shipping. Available from gratefulpalate.com
J&D's Bacon Salt: With tiny bits that mimic bacon, it comes in three flavors: original, hickory and peppered. $4.49 for 2.5 ounces. At the Firehouse in Plano and Allen, the Pool Stop in Rockwall, or online at baconsalt.com
Bacon Adhesive Bandages: Handy when someone smacks you for being obnoxious about bacon. $4.95 (box of 15) plus shipping. Find them at mcphee.com





MMMMmmmmm bacon!!!!!!

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i'm down for real bacon. i dont like fake bacon. tastes like a ball of salt

But real bacon FTW!!

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A democracy is nothing more than mob rule, where fifty-one percent of the people may take away the rights of the other forty-nine. - Thomas Jefferson

You can wash it down with this....

Bacon Brittle

You read that right: bacon brittle. Not peanut brittle. Bacon brittle.

If you’ve ever had the pleasure of having some of your pancake syrup flow onto the savory side of the plate, you might understand why hounds are crazy for the porky version of this old-fashioned confection. Some have become downright addicts. missclaudy made and ate so much in the space of a couple days she feels like she was in her own bacon candy version of “The Lost Weekend,” “though I did manage to crawl to the store to buy more bacon.” And she’s got all her friends making it.
Chowhounds have been tweaking away, and Pistou has come up with the ultimate recipe:
1 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup light corn syrup
1/2 cup water
1 Tbsp. unsalted butter
2 tsp. vanilla extract
1 tsp. baking soda
3/4 tsp. salt
3/4 cup chopped pecans
1 cup crispy cooked bacon, in bits (about 12 oz. uncooked bacon)
Grease or butter a large nonstick baking sheet, or line with a Silpat mat. In a heavy medium-sized saucepan, combine the sugar, corn syrup, and water over medium heat. Stir until the sugar dissolves and the syrup comes to a boil. Attach a candy thermometer to the pan, increase the heat to high, and cook without stirring until the mixture reaches 290 degrees. Immediately remove from the heat. Stir in the butter, vanilla, baking soda, salt, pecans, and bacon bits. The mixture will foam quite a bit. When the foam subsides, pour the hot mixture out onto the prepared baking sheet and, working quickly, spread thin using a silicone spatula or two forks. If the brittle starts to set up before you have spread it out thin, set the baking sheet in a hot oven until the candy softens and continue to spread. Cool at least 10 minutes before breaking into pieces. Store in a covered container.

EWW! i want fried bacon. The stuff you know that will kill you. Not the wussy stuff that makes you think you will live longer.

If you ever meet someone who claims to have found The Truth or True Enlightenment... run like hell!

I saw the ultimate on the food channel- bacon dipped in batter & deep fried. I had to pinch myself to see if I was dreaming!