Who would have known that bacon would achieve celebrity status. So, it’s no surprise these bacon oatmeal cookies have a place again. But then these are heady days for the pig (for that matter, all food). We like bacon and caramel donuts, bacon microwave popcorn, bacon jam, and crisp fried bacon as a drink stick in our Caesars (that is, if you don’t mind a floating oil slick in your glass). All this in spite of being bad for us. Bacon is the seductive siren, the call of the outdoors, the pineapple partner…
On my old blog, now buried on page 532 of Google search, I wrote a story about my grandmother’s bacon oatmeal cookies. So you could read it – and see a picture of my grandmother – I brought it over here.
She called them rolled oat cookies and making them with bacon grease was normal for her.
So, get saving. After cooking up your bacon, pour the fat into a clean tin can and keep it in the fridge until you’ve got one cup. The fridge part is for your benefit; the can lived on my grandmother’s stove top and she lived into her 90s. You work it out.
Grocery store bacon is fine but better bacon makes better cookies, more smoky. Any real butcher will have. However, if the bacon is too lean it won’t yield much fat so don’t be going all healthy here.
Bacon Oatmeal Cookies
- 1 cup bacon fat, creamed
- 1 c. white sugar
- 2 eggs
- 2 c. flour
- 1 tsp. soda
- 1 tsp. cinnamon
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1 c. raisins – plumped* & cut in half
- 3 c. quick cooking oats (1/2 cup less oats for moister cookies)
Cream cold fat, mix in sugar. Add in eggs and cream until fluffy (if fat gets too soft, place in fridge for 10 min.).
Mix together flour, soda, salt and cinnamon. Stir thoroughly into sugar mixture.
Mix in oats and raisins. It’s a stiff dough.
Using a dessert spoon, drop onto cookie sheets 1″ apart. Flatten with a fork (dipped in water each time to prevent sticking). If too crumbly, shape into rough balls with your hands, then press.
Bake 325F for 8-10 min. Cool on rack.
* Back when this recipe was written raisins only came in bulk and were very dry so recipes called for plumping, which is soaking in warm water then drying on a towel. You don’t have to these days but they are juicier and less sticky.
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