×
Donal Skehan
Beer and Bacon Cookies | DonalSkehan.com, Delicious, grown up cookies.
  • desserts-baking

Beer and Bacon Cookies

October 03

I’m always on the lookout for a great chocolate-chip cookie recipe, and this one is adapted from a famous New York Times recipe, which produces chewy cookies. However the difference with these little babies is the addition of candied bacon and beer! Beer & bacon all wrapped up into a cookie…What’s not to love! The dough benefits from resting overnight in the fridge and also freezes extremely well.

  • serves Serves 12
  • time 45 mins

Method

  1. 1. Preheat your oven to 200°C/400°F/Gas mark 6.
  2. 2. To make the candied bacon,line a baking tray with parchment paper and sprinkle with 2 tablespoons of brown sugar. Lay the smokey bacon on top and cover with the remaining brown sugar. Place in the oven for 20 mins. Once completely cooled, slice into 2cm pieces and set aside.
  3. 3. In a standalone mixer with a paddle beater (or in a large bowl, using an electric hand mixer), beat the sugars and butter until light and pale. Break in the eggs one at a time, mixing between additions and pausing to scrape down the sides with a spatula. Mix in the vanilla extract and stout. Remove the bowl from the mixer and sift in the flour and baking powder. Mix with a wooden spoon until well incorporated, then mix through the chocolate chunks and bacon pieces. Bring the dough together and split into two. Place each half on a sheet of cling film, roll up and form into a thick sausage shape, sealing the ends.

  4. TOP TIP

    Depending on how many cookies you need (the sausages make six cookies each), you can place one of the cookie-dough sausages in the freezer for another time and one in the fridge to rest overnight. The frozen dough will last up to 6 months in the freezer.
  5. 5. Simply pop it in the fridge, or give it an extremely cautious 30-second blast in the microwave before you plan to use it. The following day, take the dough out of the fridge, unwrap and slice into six pieces. Place the slices onto a lined baking sheet and sprinkle each cookie with a little sea salt.
  6. 6. Preheat the oven to 180°C/350°F/Gas Mark 4. Pop in the oven to bake for 20 minutes or until they are golden brown on the edges and ever so slightly pale in the centre. Allow to cool slightly before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely.

Ingredients

For the candied bacon:

250g smocked, streaky bacon

4 tbsp dark brown sugar

For the cookie dough:

275g soft light brown sugar

225g granulated sugar

275g butter

2 large free-range eggs

1 tbsp vanilla extract

4 tbsp of dark stout

475g plain flour

2 tsp baking powder

300g good-quality dark chocolate, roughly chopped into chunks

Sea salt

You'll Need

Baking tray

Standalone mixer or hand held mixer