Mapo Baco Choco
Many of my tasters have requested more savory recipes, so I aimed for something that was both salty and sweet, with a dose of comfort. When using honey in cookies, which I do for both flavor and to lower the amount of refined sugar, it can get overly sweet very easily. Using a savory complement such as bacon can offset this, but then it becomes a back and forth of flavor balance. To prevent going down that rabbit hole, I like to select a third supporting ingredient that ties the sweet and salty together. In this case, that’s maple. So by using bacon bits and mini chocolate chips, and a touch of maple extract, I ended up with a sweet and savory and very familiar set of flavors that work together perfectly. For a little added indulgence, I substituted a skosh of the bacon drippings for some of the butter called for in the recipe.
Compared to most similar traditional recipes, the yield on these is quite a bit lower (by about 1/3). 370 for 10 minutes.
