Have you ever heard of bacon in cookies? It seems like a completely outrageous concept… but after lots of testing, I can say that these cookies are amazing and definitely worth a try this holiday season. For the 8th day of my #12DaysOfChristmas series, I give you my Maple Bacon Shortbread Cookies.
If you recall, a few posts back, I wrote out my grandma’s famous Shortbread Cookie recipe. This Maple Bacon Shortbread Cookies use the same base recipe, just with a little less sugar and more bacon 😛 These cookies feature two of my favourite local Vancouver Island products and they just so happen to compliment each other perfectly!
My Favourite Local Bacon
In this recipe, I use my favourite local bacon from Red Barn Markets. This bacon is always cut to the perfect thickness and has just the right amount of smoky and sweet flavour. I enjoy this bacon on just about anything, but I never thought to put it into cookies until I was developing my recipes a few months back. Just as I suspected, the bacon is great in this recipe!
Local Sea Salt
I also use a locally made handcrafted sea salt from SaltWest to really put these cookies over the edge. This salt is handcrafted in Sooke, BC from ocean water. SaltWest makes tons of different gourmet salts (and even bath salts) but this salt has to be my favourite. It is sweet and smoky salt compliments salmon dishes, BBQ meats, and of course bacon perfectly!
Try out this crazy concoction for the holiday season and surprise all your friends and family with how delicious (and Canadian!) these cookies are!
Get the Recipe!
Maple Bacon Shortbread Cookies
Ingredients
- 1 pound 2 cups salted butter, at room temperature
- 1/3 cup maple syrup plus more for brushing
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 3/4 cups icing sugar
- 4 cups all-purpose flour plus more for dusting
- 6 strips bacon cooked until crisp and finely chopped
- 2 teaspoons Sweet Smokey Maple Sea Salt from SaltWest or your favourite finishing salt
Instructions
- In a large bowl, beat the butter, maple syrup and salt until smooth and fluffy. Sift in the icing sugar and beat until smooth and combined.
- Next, sift in the flour and beat until combined. It is easier to add half of the flour at a time, mixing thoroughly between additions. Once the flour is completely combined, fold in the chopped bacon, mixing until incorporated. Shape the dough into two discs and wrap each disc in plastic wrap. Place the discs in the fridge for 30 minutes to allow the dough to cool and for the gluten to relax.
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F and arrange your oven baking racks so that they are near the top of the oven. Roll out each disc of dough on a lightly-floured surface. Using a lightly floured cookie cutter, cut out the cookies into shapes. Place them onto parchment-lined baking sheets, abut 2-3 cm apart.
- Use a pastry brush to brush the top of each cookie with a bit of maple syrup. For a final touch, sprinkle a bit of sea salt over the top of each cookie. Bake for 15 minutes, or until the cookies are golden brown on the bottom.
- Let the cookies cool on the baking tray for 5 minutes before transferring to a wire rack to cool. Enjoy!
