Maple Bacon Chocolate Chip Cookies

I have to admit, this isn't the first time I have made these cookies. The idea came to me when my husband and I were invited to our friends' house for a party. The wife is a vegetarian, so my husband feels the need to feed her husband meat as much as possible. I had already decided I was going to make cookies, but thought it would be fun to figure out a way to add meat (to be fair, I did also bring hot chocolate cupcakes without any meat in them ;)).

I've had maple bacon cupcakes before, so I figured there must be a cookie version. I found some inspiration on allrecipes.com and combined it with the basic drop cookie recipe from my High Altitude Baking book.

I enlisted my husband to make the bacon because he makes the best bacon ever. However, when I asked him if I could post his recipe on here, he told me it was a secret. So, you'll just have to use your own special bacon recipe or even Oscar Mayer Real Bacon Bits.

Another snow day had me working at home so I decided to give these cookies another go. I wasn't completely satisfied with the way they came out the first time because I felt like you couldn't taste enough of the bacon, so this time I didn't chop the bacon as much as the last time. This go 'round, I feel like the bacon flavor is much more evident, as it should be.

Maple Bacon Chocolate Chip Cookies

  2 cups flour

 1 teaspoon salt

 1 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 cup sugar

 1/2 cup packed brown sugar

2/3 cup shortening

2 eggs

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 teaspoon maple extract

1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips

1/2 cup chopped, cooked bacon

Preheat oven to 375. In a medium bowl, combine flour, salt and baking powder. In a large bowl, cream sugars and shortening. Add eggs, vanilla and maple and beat until smooth. Add flour mixture slowly and thoroughly, a little at a time. Stir in chocolate chips and bacon. Drop cookies, about an inch around, onto an ungreased cookie sheet about an inch apart. Bake for 10-12 minutes. Remove cookies from the cookie sheet immediately and place on a cooling rack or wax paper.