Maple Bacon Chocolate Chip Cookies

It's been a rather hazy, lazy day. Keepitcoming and I have had a whirlwind week and needed to relax, spend the day getting things done around the house, and enjoy ourselves. So for dinner, we decided to make these maple bacon chocolate chip cookies alongside an entree of scrambled eggs and some cold iced tea.This cookie recipe, adapted from Noble Pig, yields a really moist and crispy cookie, with a golden brown bottom and a decadent, smoky sweet flavor the entire way through. These are fantastic lunchbox cookies or potluck items, or even a taboo breakfast cookie. With a conservative usage of batter, it makes a prodigious amount of rich, large cookies, with a good number leftover for late night snacking.Maple Bacon Chocolate Chip Cookies, recipe adapted from Noble Pig
Ingredients (makes 12 large cookies)
5 strips maple smoked bacon
1 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup unsalted butter, room temperature
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1/3 cup light brown sugar, packed
1 large egg
3/4 teaspoon maple extract or syrup
3/4 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips

1. Start by preheating the oven to 350 degrees, and setting a frying pan on your oven's lowest setting to heat up. Chop each piece of bacon in half so it fits easier in the pan, and start frying.
2. Mix together your flour, baking soda, and salt in a bowl, and cream your butter and sugars. It helps to have the butter relatively soft so it easily incorporates.
3. Once the butter and sugar is creamed, mix in the egg and maple syrup.
4. When all the bacon is fried, to the point where you no longer have curls of fat, let it cool and finely chop it with a knife or in a food processor. We then refried the bits to render them down even more, crisp them up, and get rid of the excess grease.5. Mix in your chocolate chips. We don't like a ton of chocolate in our cookies, and we like it to be on the less sweet side, so we used Ghiradelli 60% bittersweet chips.
6. Mix in your chopped bacon, and scoop a heaping teaspoon onto the tray, lubricated with your extra bacon grease instead of spray, six to a batch. They get quite flat and really spread out.
7. Bake for 12-14 minutes or until the center is solid and the edges are crispy and brown. Once cooled, the cookies will slide right off the sheet and into your mouths. Delicious.The money shot.

These really were delightful cookies, and impart a breakfasty smokiness and chew, along with a gooey chocolate center. The amount of chocolate we used was enough to get chocolate in every few bites and not overwhelm. These are great cookies for anyone, bacon aficionado or not!Keepitcoming Love's Disturbing Observation of the Day: "Luscious cookie action."