Ginger bacon cookies

Holiday baking season is in full swing and I'm starting to consider the order of battle for this year's Christmas cookies. I'm very partial to ginger cookies, so I'm always on the lookout for new recipes to add to my repertoire. (Remind me to post my Great Grandmother's recipe for molasses cookies with 7-minute frosting.)

Here's an unexpectedly tasty-looking recipe for ginger bacon cookies at the Visual Gourmet--they're like regular ginger cookies except with bacon grease as the fat instead of butter or margarine. Lard is great for baking, so I'm willing to believe that bacon fat might also be good, especially in a recipe with strong spices to hide the lingering porky taste.

And here's a more conventional, but no less promising, ginger cookie recipe from Chocolate and Zucchini: Biscuits Tres Gingembre.

My brother also sent me this recipe for a pecan pie-based icosahedron--held together with magnets, no less.

Comments

[cfrost]

I like ginger and I like the lingering porky taste. I'll take any uneaten cookies.

Nice site that visual recipes, particularly for culinary losers like myself. Not so sure about Guinness cheesecake though.

[Richard]

"Lard is great for baking..."
Hi Lindsay. So refreshing to hear someone, under the age of 75, commenting on food who hasn't been brainwashed by the fat-phobic propaganda of the last 30 years. Yes lard is good for baking. I recommend a BHA, BHT trans fat-free variety. I'll have to try those ginger bacon cookies. Thanks for the tip.

[mudkitty]

Funny you should mention that...I've recently taken to saving (and useing) my bacon grease (in the fridge - in the old days my grandmother would leave it out in a cannister.) It makes an excellent addition to (combination with) butter, btw, and keeps the butter from burning, yet retains the flavor of the butter. Call it recycling, call it economics, call it GOOD!

[Hawise]

Lard is also the only way to make really good french fries.
I like to make my own crystallized ginger to add to ginger breads, cakes and cookies. Also I have an old recipe where you add cayenne to ginger cookies to kick the flavour up another level. It really works.

[Njorl]

I love using bacon fat in cooking, but rarely do. Everyone in the house has either high triglycerides, or LDL, or low HDL. I generally just use it for cajun recipes - it really is the best way to make roux.

I must complain about all you ginger zealots. Your damnable ginger snaps have driven my spiced wafers out of all the stores.

[cfrost]

...refreshing to hear someone, under the age of 75...

I used to think everyone understood that you keep your bacon grease in the refrigerator. But it's true, anyone under thirty finding a can of bacon grease in the fridge reflexively tosses it in the trash, leaving me cooking eggs with butter -burns- or oil -disgusting-.

[Eric Jaffa]

Lindsay -

I tried to email you five minutes ago, but the email bounced.

I used the address on the top-left of this website's homepage.

[Bomboniera]

3/4 cup bacon fat. Wowza. But nonetheless, I'm intrigued. I think a little bacon flavor in the background could be awfully good with ginger and ginger cookie spices. You'll have to get us know how they turn out.

[The J Train]

I read your post title to my wife, a fan of both ginger and bacon, and she said, "Your ideas intrigue me and I wish to subscribe to your newsletter."

[Lindsay Beyerstein]

Eric, please try again. My email box was full briefly.

[Lindsay Beyerstein]

Freshly ground black pepper is a great addition to any ginger cookie recipe. Four or five grinds from the mill, or to taste will add depth and kick to molasses or spice cookie mix.

I learned that tip from Cooks Illustrated a couple years ago, and it's served me well.

[mudkitty]

Pepper is primal.

[zuzu]

Somewhere, I have a recipe for Mexican Chocolate Cookies that uses both cayenne and black pepper.

[Battlepanda]

I'm quite fond of the bacon fat jar too. Here's a recipe for the lazy that's a favorite of mine: chop half and onion and saute in a big dollop of bacon fat until transparent. Add about 3/4 pound enoki mushrooms and cook on high until they're soft and floppy and the onions are a little caramelized. Add half cup (or to taste) Yamaki Soba Tsuyu noodle sauce (should be available at any asian market) and cook for a minute more.

Yes, you may substitute other veggies if enoki mushroom is expensive/rare in your area. I'd imagine that asparagus would be particularly delicious. Ordinary mushrooms might be good too.

No, you cannot substitute just soy for the noodle sauce. The sweetness and dashi-flavor of the noodle sauce is essential to the dish. It's so easy already. Would it really kill you to have to track down this one product? And believe me, once you have it, you'll find yourself using it in all sorts of ways.