Banana Bacon Chocolate Chip Cookies

My great grandma Marion, used to make chocolate chip cookies with leftover bacon fat. My dad, aunt and uncle have randomly talked about that throughout my lifetime and how it always sounded gross to them, and my grandma (their mom) wouldn’t let them eat it.

As a kid, it sounded gross to me as well, and yesterday, after making bacon in the morning, I decided not to throw away the bacon fat in the pan.

I wondered… what would happen if I used this in place of my coconut oil in my Paleo Chocolate Chip Cookies.

WONDER NO MORE because WOWZA - these cookies are delicious with bacon fat!

I made my Paleo Chocolate Chip Cookie recipe as planned, but when I went to my chocolate stash (the location of which I shall keep hidden), I was looking for a plain dark chocolate bar of some sort. I ran my finger across Hu Kitchen’s Crunchy Banana Dark Chocolate bar — a paleo, vegan chocolate bar that is gluten free, refined sugar free, dairy free, sugar alcohol free, and nonGMO.

To be honest, I had never tried this flavor of their incredible line of chocolate bars, BUT I just thought the banana and bacon and chocolate would totally work and it did!

I chopped up the chocolate bar and used it in this recipe in place of chocolate chips.

I never got to meet my Great Grandma Marion. She passed away less than 2 years before I was born. I do know that she loved to bake. My dad, aunt and uncle talk about these ice cream sandwiches that she used to make. I don’t know if she ever tried this combo with bacon and banana in cookies, but, regardless, this one is inspired by and for you, Great Grandma Marion!

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INGREDIENTS

1 cup Bob’s Red Mill Paleo Flour

1/4 cup maple sugar*

1/4 cup bacon fat, melted**

1/4 cup cashew butter

1 flax egg***

1/2 tsp baking soda

2 tsp vanilla

pinch of sea salt

1 Hu Kitchen Crunchy Banana Dark Chocolate bar

*You can also use coconut sugar.

**If you have “chunks” in your bacon fat, it’s better to strain it. You don’t want those little burnt thingies in your cookies.

**Mix 3 tablespoons of warm water with 1 tablespoon of flax seed meal. Let it sit about 3 minutes until it forms a gel = 1 egg

Directions:

Preheat your oven to 375 degrees.

Make your flax egg and set aside for at least 3 minutes.

Mix all wet ingredients: bacon fat, cashew butter, and vanilla in a medium size bowl until smooth. Add in the flax egg. Best to do this by hand.

Mix all dry ingredients: flour, maple sugar, baking soda, sea salt in another bowl.

Combine the wet with the dry ingredients until combined.

Cut up the chocolate bar and fold into the mixture.

Use a cookie scoop to ensure cookies are evenly sized. I used this one from Amazon. It’s about 1.5 teaspoons or so.

Bake at 375 for 10 minutes - we think 10 minutes is perfection.

Bake for 9 minutes if you want the cookie a bit gooey

Bake for 11 minutes if you want the cookie a little harder or crunchier.