I hadn’t had a peanut butter cookie in a really long time.
And when Nick went out to get dinner stuff, he mentioned that maybe I should do the dishes, and I was like, “If I’m helpful, maybe he’ll come home with a present!” So I did the dishes, and Nick came home, and I pointed out the four dishes I washed, and he wasn’t as impressed as I’d hoped, and then he asked if I bothered to clean out the fridge yet. Of course I didn’t. But I thought, I could at least open it and see what happens. And then it happened. The bacon fat resurfaced!
Please don’t quit on me yet. I promise you, this is worth your while.
Bacon fat is better for you than margarine, if you haven’t heard, and while I can’t actually back that up, it’s a fact, and if you want proof then I would be happy to recommend some literature that will help you along. And we’re in a recession. And I’m saving the butter for mashed potatoes. My grandmother used to make the best peanut butter cookies in the world using schmaltz (rendered chicken or goose fat), which would have been left over anyway, which she kept in the freezer just for baking. And being (constantly) broke, my cold little heart breaks when I have to throw stuff out. I always save my bacon fat.
The peanut butter cookie recipe I like the best comes from Fannie Farmer. I have long been a fan of Marion Cunningham, who is like everybody in the world’s grandmother’s cookbook (but not my grandmother, the story of who’s cookbook is a novel for another time) mashed into one divine being who makes everything you want to eat and is tall (I imagine) and regal and is friends with Jeffrey Steingarten, who is another kind of hero. I make half-batches of this recipe, because two dozen cookies is quite enough for me. The recipe in its full measure claims that it will produce 120 cookies, which I have never found to be true. This is either a gross miscalculation or they’re supposed to be tiny little cookies, and I hate little cookies because they’re a tease and before you know it you’ve eaten two bags of mini rainbow Chips Ahoy and you’re drunk and it’s 3:42 am and you’re crying on the kitchen floor (again) and the reason is embarrassing but also you wish you could carry on a conversation with normal people without saying something wildly inappropriate or them thinking you had tourette’s syndrome, for once, and who the hell let you have the phone in the first place?
Peanut-Butter Bacon Fat Cookies
(Adapted from the recipe for Peanut-Butter Butter Cookies from the Fannie Farmer Baking Book, circa 1984. Makes about two-dozen cookies.)
- 1/2 cup bacon fat
- 1/2 cup peanut butter
- 1 cup light brown sugar
- 1 egg
- 1 1/2 cups flour
- 1 tsp. baking soda
- Pinch of salt
Preheat the oven to 350°F.
Beat your bacon fat, peanut butter, and sugar together in a large bowl. You want the colour of the goop in the bowl to lighten and get creamy. Once it’s there, crack open your egg and drop the contents in, and keep beating the mixture.
Combine the flour, baking soda, and salt, mix well, and then slowly add it to the mixture in the bowl, beating until all your ingredients are combined.
If you’re like me and you’ve never been disappointed by a hunk of cookie dough in your mouth, then sample away. At first you may think it’s a little weird – and it is. But in a good way. The bacon fat makes the peanut butter seem peanut-butterier.
Roll the dough out into balls about an inch or so in diameter. Place about an inch apart on a cookie sheet, and press the tops down with a fork dipped in granulated sugar.
Bake the cookies for 8 to 10 minutes, and cool for a bit on a wire rack before eating.
I have to say I was pretty pleased with myself/these cookies, and not just because I used something in the fridge and therefore made progress toward a cleaner tomorrow. They are TASTY. You really ought to try this. I’m pretty sure a pound or so of bacon will produce enough fat for these, and then some, if you don’t already save your fat. Don’t waste fat. Baby Jesus cries when you wash the fat of the pig down the drain.
Seriously. You need to try these. Go render some pork fat, and then let me know how it all works out. Or, just come over for cookies and milk, and inhale my good baking stink.
well fed, flat broke 
OMG. I’m sure these are a heart attack waiting to happen. But it would be a really, really joyful and tasty heart attack.
LikeLike
well well. i’ve never thought of bacon fat in peanut cookies.
i do use it when i make home made perogies and either lazy or full out handmade cabbage rolls.
i’m a saskatchewan chick so bacon fat is a secret taught to me by my foster ukranian baba.
you probably already have the recipe and probably already make it
but in case you don’t..or haven’t tried it..let me know.
its really devine.
LikeLike
Mmm … that sounds awesome. The next time I make homemade perogies or cabbage rolls, I’ll try that! The fat is good in the cookies – it makes them very crunchy.
LikeLike
have you ever made lazy cabbage rolls? or lazy perogies?
if not..let me know. i know secrets told to me by whispers of chilled breath through holocaust and DP camp bars..Oh I have secrets.
naw. I just have a good imagination and some stoof I learned as kid but was supposed to be only watching and not paying attention. darned me.
LikeLike
I don’t know – reading your comment, I wonder if I’ve ever made the hard ones, or if everything I’ve ever done my whole life has been lazy. Maybe I haven’t? I’ll bite: You’ve sparked my curiosity. Feed me your holocaust dumplings (or, teach me how to make them myself).
I have absconded with similar family secrets, also under the pretense of only watching and not really paying attention. It’s the best way to secure one’s status in the family legacy 😉
LikeLike
well..since you asked..(SMILE)
I’ll try to write this as close to recipe standard as possible, but I write like I cook. All over the place.
Brown a package of bacon with one chopped onion. Not until really brown but def crunchy. Add to this the lean ground beef and cook until browned. Do not drain either the bacon or the beef fat.
Add a head of chopped or roughly shredded cabbage.
Once this has had a chance to sweat add some salt and ground pepper. Also add one half teaspoon ground nutmeg. Very imporant.
Then place this all in a huge roaster because trust me? It freezes but there will be no leftovers.
Add about 2 cups rice that has been cooked. That is to say I have no clue how much it makes when done, but you get my drift.
Then add one, two or maybe three cans of campbells tomato soup. Then cover and bake low for a long time. As in all afternoon, if its low enough. Keep checking it as you don’t want to burn it.
And thats about it for lazy cabbage rolls. If you have the patience and will power to make the rolled ones as tiny and compact as a ukranian church lady’s pinky finger feel free. But just use the ground been very sparsely. In fact, its almost all rice. But then drizzle the bacon fat over it before you add the tomato sauce. Like compact little fingers they squish in a roaster and bake until soft, and done. Its easy too if you freeze solid fresh cabbage for a month or so before you slightly blanche it. Make the rolling easier and more tender.
Of course..you can use sour cabbage too, the brown kind from the grocery store wrapped taught looking like sourcrout.
But however you make your rolls, (or lazies) make sure to use the bacon fat. All of it…
Now if you make lazy perogies its alot like lasagne. Brown the bacon and onion. Set aside.
Boil potaotes and mash, adding whatever you need to make perfect mashed potatoes. Then add one container of cottage cheese, and a couple cups of shredded cheddar. Mix up and let it sit for abit.
Layer the lasagne noodles(cooked) in a pan and then potatoes, then bacon and onions, then more noodles and so on until you reach the top. Cover tightly with foil and bake on low. You don’t need all afternoon for this one, just long enough to melt and meld all the goodies together. Then when its done drizzle some sour cream on the squares as they come out. Oh and make sure to let them set abit before you cut it.
I apologise for not including measurements, but you can adjust as you go. From what I read, we cook alot alike.
My adopted Baba (ukranian gramma) always had a recycled cheezewhiz container in the back of her fridge filled with bacon grease. It came in handy when it was time to flavour things. When she didn’t have the money for bacon or beef, she used the grease and fooled us all.
Those are my bacon secrets. Hope you like them. Let me know how they taste if you try them. In my life there is three comfort foods, lazy cabbage rolls, lazy perogies and the top secret one…Muck. Its long, convoluded and when you read the ingredients you’ll shake your head, but it was an invention that my girlfriend and I made up when we were kids. If you want it, I’ll post it, but honestly, I don’t think its ever been written down.
enjoy! 🙂
LikeLike
Oh wow, thanks! I happen to have most of that stuff on hand, so I’ll definitely give both a try one rainy day very soon. I’ll keep you posted! 🙂
I just bought four packages of bacon today. I was a little embarrassed, but am now super-pumped.
LikeLike
My mom’s “famous” pb cookies are also from Fanny. But minus the bacon fat. People think she’s a magician, but really they’re the laziest things that taste great.
LikeLike
It makes me feel weird to say it but I genuinely wish you were wooing me so I could get some of those cookies.
LikeLike