We hope you enjoy this sweet, lightly salty, subtly smoky treat from Chef Dave Martin, using our Wild Cherrywood Smoked Bacon.  When we make these, the whole batch disappears really quickly and people are amazed to learn that bacon is an ingredient.  Chef Dave served these for us at the 2012 Food Network New York Wine & Food Festival, where they were a big hit.  Happy baking!

Recipe By: Chef Dave Martin of Top Chef

Yields about 4 dozen

Ingredients:

12 oz. unsalted butter, room temperature

4 oz. Nueske’s Wild Cherrywood Smoked Bacon drippings, rendered from cooking the bacon

1 ¼ cups granulated sugar

1 ¼ tsp. vanilla extract

1 ½ cups chopped, cooked Nueske’s Wild Cherrywood Smoked Bacon pieces

1 ½ cups dried cherries

4 ¼ cups all-purpose flour, sifted

2 tsp. kosher salt

Instructions:

In a stand mixer, add butter, bacon drippings, and sugar, and blend using your paddle attachment or with electric beaters until mixture is light yellow in color.  Add vanilla and sift in the flour and salt.  Continue blending until everything is incorporated/blended well, and then add in the cherries and cooked bacon pieces. Remove the dough and then use a little bit of flour and work it into a roll (like a refrigerated grocery store cookie dough-sized roll). Then wrap the roll in plastic wrap and chill for about 30-45 minutes so that the butter in the dough sets.  If you bake right these away, without chilling the dough first, the cookies will flatten out too much during baking.

Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees.  Remove the dough roll from fridge and slice into ½ inch-thick circles and place the circles onto an ungreased baking sheet.  Bake for about 20 minutes or until slightly browned.  Remove from oven and allow them to cool; cookies will harden a bit more as they cool.

 

 

 

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