We’re going back to California tomorrow (or today rather, as I write these posts the night before) for the holidays and we’ll be gone an entire two-and-a-half weeks! There’s still so much to do, so I’m keeping this post short. And then I must return to packing and meeting last-minute work deadlines and cleaning out the fridge (urgh).
After that, I foresee freeeeedom and warm-ish weather and long drives down the 1. We’re putting up the tree with my family, seeing friends, and hitting up all our old haunts. One of these days, I will write a long ode to California, but for now, I’m leaving you with a recipe for bacon fat gingersnaps.
I’m guessing you can tell why these cookies are special. Yup! They’re made with bacon fat. While the idea is that you’ve been collecting bacon drippings all along, saving it in a little bowl so you can re-use it for other recipes (something I vividly remember my mom doing when I was younger), I had to go out and buy a pound-and-a-half of bacon especially for this recipe, and then spent the better part of an hour frying it up. Later that night, and for days after, we reheated the strips and used them for sandwiches and omelettes and other such delights. These foods all benefit from bacon, I’m sure you would agree, so it wasn’t too much trouble for me.
The cookies themselves taste smoky and exotic, hardly like bacon, although you can tell there’s something in there that contributes an inexplicable… savoriness? Huskiness? I’m definitely not a slap-bacon-on-it-and-call-it-a-day kind of gal, by the way. But I do like my ginger-flavored sweets, and I love the softness of these cookies. (which begs the question: are they technically gingersnaps then? Aren’t gingersnaps supposed to be, I dunno, snappy?)
I also love the origin of this recipe, which comes from Cathy Horyn, the renowned New York Times FASHION editor who got the recipe from her mother. Yes! So I suppose this recipe is an old-new take on a classic gingersnap recipe that is perfect for the holidays.
BACON FAT GINGERSNAPS
Adapted from Leite’s Culinaria
Makes 3 dozen or so
Ingredients:
3/4 cup bacon drippings (from 1 1/2 to 2 pounds bacon), at room temperature
1/2 cup granulated sugar, plus more for the work surface
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup molasses (not blackstrap) or cane syrup
1 large egg
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/2 teaspoons kosher salt
2 teaspoons baking soda
2 teaspoons ground ginger
1/2 teaspoon ground allspice
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
Directions:
Mix all the ingredients together until a smooth, stiff dough forms. Wrap it tightly with plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least a few hours and up to 2 days.
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Line 2 baking with parchment paper. In a small bowl, pour about 1/4 cup sugar. Break off 1-Tbsp chunks of the cookie dough and roll them into balls. Then roll them around in the sugar to coat and place them on the baking sheets, 2 inches apart.
Bake the cookies 10 to 12 minutes, until dark brown. Let cool.
Really f***ing good cookies. And those photos are beautiful.
love the lighting on this!
Just found your blog through this recipe on Pinterest. Ditto to the first comment. I must make those cookies! Also, I love how romantic the shots are!
Thanks Misty! I definitely have a thing for shadowy photos. Maybe it’s my flair for dramatics coming out, haha!
I’m planning on making those kim boyce gingersnaps that you sent me sometime this week! I’m really excited to make them, but these sound so intriguing. I especially love the texture you said they have–I like gingersnaps, but I think I like chewier gingersnaps more. I’m not sure if that means they’re just ginger molasses cookies, but oh well. And is the Chris comment above your Chris? Cause in that case, it’s awesome that he loved these cookies so much!
Yes, he is my Chris! Hahaha. These cookies are definitely chewy… maybe they are more ginger molasses cookies. There’s definitely no snap.
And yes! Make the Kim Boyce gingersnaps! I haven’t made them in awhile but definitely have good memories of them. Let me know what you think.
Yessss, bacon fat cookies! These look stupid good!
I’m a habitual saver of bacon fat, although I never think to use it in baked sweets. (I usually wind up using it to pop popcorn.) It’s probably good that I already have some to experiment with, because I’m trying to imagine what would happen if I had a pound and a half of cooked bacon in my fridge. Things would definitely get out of hand.
Have a great time and a happy holiday out on the west coast! (:
Thanks Carey!! And I’ve pledged to myself going forward not to waste any more bacon fat.
o.k. so the bacon fat does the trick for you but what do you think of the idea of pulling the blackstrap and using maple syrup cut with a few tablespoons of brandy? then watch what happens when the troopers try doing a breath test on ya. as for using the bacon fat on popcorn add a few grains of celery seed and sweet smoked paprika when you warm up the fat to sprinle on the popcorn, it orville sure as hell ain’t never made nothin like that.
Hahaha, your ideas sound delectable John, the popcorn especially!
These cookies look great and I am intrigued by your use of bacon fat – I have been meaning to give this a try (however artery-clogging the end results may be, it just sounds so delicious) but had not thought about combining this with a gingersnap cookie! Love the pics as well (as the rest of your beautiful blog!).
Silly question but is the taste more pronounced than when you use brown butter rather than normal butter or is it stronger/weaker?
Ooh, I never thought of using brown butter but it sounds like you’re on to something. I don’t know the answer to your question, but if you decide to try it, let us know what you think!
Pretty obsessed with your blog. Seriously, beautiful work! I need these cookies. Right now. I just love a crispy sugar top to everything sweet. So good, so beautiful!