Maple Bacon Cookies

For my graduation project for school, I am to come up with a complete business plan for a restaurant. This business plan is to include menus and recipes for the items on said menu (along with a bunch of other information that I won't bore you guys with).

My restaurant is a cookie shop, and one of the items on the menu is a maple bacon cookie. Sounds fabulous, doesn't it?

Maple Bacon Cookies:

Recipe adapted from Ghirardelli Chocolate Chip Cookie recipe

Yield: about 24 cookies

2 ¼ c all-purpose flour
1 tsp baking soda
½ tsp salt
1 c (2 sticks) butter, softened
¾ c sugar
¾ c brown sugar
2 tsp vanilla
2 eggs
1 ½ c cooked bacon, torn into small pieces

½ c maple syrup
¼ c brown sugar

Preheat oven to 375*F

Combine flour, baking soda, and salt in a bowl and set aside.

In a separate bowl combine butter and sugars and beat until light and fluffy. Add in vanilla and eggs, one at a time, until well combined.

Add dry ingredients, mixing on low speed, a little at a time until fully incorporated, and then fold in bacon pieces.

Drop rounded teaspoons onto parchment lined baking sheets and bake 9-11 minutes, or until golden brown, and allow to cool completely.

In a saucepan, combine maple syrup and brown sugar and heat on medium heat until sugar is fully dissolved and the syrup has reduced somewhat. Drizzle cooled cookies with maple glaze and let is set.

Then, my friends, you are free to inhale the cookies to your heart’s content.

Just to see what would happen, I allowed the maple/brown sugar combo to reduce further and it created a much thicker frosting-like glaze, but the sugar crystals were noticeable and it gave it a bit more of a texture that I did not care for. Go ahead and try this for yourself, and if you over-reduce it, just add a bit of water while heating up the mixture and stirring, until you get it to a consistency you like.