Chocolate Chip Cookies Experimentation Using Bacon Grease

So it was cookie making time at my house.  

    

We were all pining for something sweet. So into the kitchen I went. I gently threw open my bread maker and tossed in some flour, sugar, stuff and more stuff and out came some cookie dough. I baked one pan and put the rest in a zip-lock bag into the fridge.

     

This photo is from another cookie dough moment.  This time the bowl came out sparkling clean.  But I just wanted you to see my 'dough maker bowl'.

I got these results:
    

Pilot- "I don't like your cookies mom, they taste weird." I asked him what was weird about them and he couldn't or wouldn't exactly say.

        

Angel- "I don't like your cookies either mom............., I love them!" I was headed into depression and then she blindsided me and I was elated. She is my picky eater.

I had to use Special Dark Chocolate Chips because that is all I have, and Angel emphatically says she hates them! I have her fooled, I use them when I have to, however I usually mix them with milk or semi-sweet. Don't tell her I did this or she will all the sudden hate them. LOL............ 
            

(I had Special Dark because they were on sale.  The store had ordered too many of them and no one was buying them but me.  I think they should have just given them all to me for next to nothing, but a dollar a bag was good too. I only bought about 6 bags, and they are all gone now.  boooo hoooo.......... I love Special Dark!)

    

Hubby- "They aren't your best, but there is nothing wrong with them either. I think they are good." He is a good diplomat. He knows what to say, but then after 16 years of marriage he'd better know what to say. The hard part is really knowing if he is telling the truth or trying not to hurt my feelings.

    

Me- I think they are definitely edible. They satisfied my sugar/sweet craving so that was excellent. They did have a small smell to them, but no one else mentioned it. There was no odd taste that I could find, maybe Pilot has strange taste buds? Noway......... he is not strange in any way.........................
 
    
    

OK to tell the truth-
     

I didn't exactly follow a recipe, exactly. I just sort of made them. I am putting the recipe on here for any one else to make these, but just to document what I did.
   
    

Warning/ Disclaimer-
     

If you were to make them, they should turn out OK. But they would be just regular nothing special cookies and there are plenty of other wonderful Chocolate Chip Cookie recipes to make and enjoy.
         

I am hoping that some might find this interesting and do a little experimenting with cooking themselves. I love just making things up, but they don't always work. But then you analyze, learn, redo and enjoy the journey to making things better. This is how we should live and do everything in our lives, not just cooking............... Just wanted to share........

    

    

Today's Cookie Experimentation-
     

Into the bread maker went:
     

3 cups flour

2/3 cups sugar

1 cup brown sugar

1/2 tsp salt

1 1/2 tsp baking powder

1/2 cup softened butter

1/2 cup soft but not melted bacon grease

2 tsp vanilla

3 eggs
      

Turn on the bread maker and let it mix. If it gets too stiff, dump it out into a bowl and stir with a spoon. I did help the mixer along a bit, but I'm not patient with things like this. I used my strong spoon type rubber scraper to help turn the dough.
      

Then I mixed in the rest of my chocolate chips stash. They were special dark ones and there was about 1/2 cup left, not nearly enough, but hey you use what you have.
      

From there I took my small cookie scoop and made a tray of 12 cookies. I put the rest of the dough in the fridge for later cooking. I decided to make only a few, to see how the bacon grease did. I figured if it was too overpowering, I would make bars and frost them. I knew that would work, but it did not come to that.
 
    

Oh....... Pilot updated his review. He came to me this morning with the leftover dough in his hand. "mom, can you cook these?"
    

"I thought you didn't like them," I replied.
     

"They taste fine this morning," he confessed.
   
    

I go in the kitchen, the rest of the cookies from last night are gone. Somebody thought they were alright.
     

So I baked three more pans of 12 each. So this recipe made 48 cookies.
             

Angel gets a plate out and starts filling it up. "Angel," I ask, "do you have enough yet?" She had 5 on her plate.

       

"No, they are too good. I have to give one to Pilot because I just ate one of his." She turns around and see me putting in another tray to bake, "Oh, you have more? I guess I'll take another couple."

      

I give her the look that says, yeh right, you need more? NO! I didn't have to say any words, and she didn't take any more cookies. But somehow they are slowly disappearing. I hope to hide a few in the freezer when I get through with this post.
     

I could smell bacon grease on them. One could have come to the conclusion that I grease the pan with bacon grease. The cookies did not taste of bacon at all. They were slightly different from just butter taste, but I thought it added a new dimension to the end result. 

       

I think that an experimentation with one great recipe would be better. I could make half the way the recipe reads and alter the other half to include the bacon grease. This would be a better way to taste test.  Maybe even add a bit of cinnamon, that would be good too.

      
I did learn that I could make cookies with bacon grease if I had too. I probably won't unless we have an earthquake or something that prohibits me from getting my butter. But I will keep on baconing in savory dishes. Like breakfast,muffins, cornbread, bread, biscuits, soups, stews (thickening w/ flour for gravy) and other things. And greasing my pans for strata, quiches, hashbrown and fried eggs.
           
        

Pilot just came out of the kitchen with a cookie in his hand, a bite in his mouth. "These taste weird again," he says.  "I think I like them either cold over night or hot from the oven. Oh and I like the ones you cooked that are a little more crispy."
    

Well, Pilot usually likes his cookies soft.  So why the change?  Don't really know.  But I did bake a sheet of cookies a bit longer for him, because he asked me to when I was baking them this morning.  I don't really think it matters.  To me they taste the same warm, cool or cold.  Pilot is just trying to be weird!  

                

I suppose I won't be making this particular recipe again.  However, the bottom line is still that everyone's still eating them.  So they can't be horrible!!!