Version with bacon, roughly chopped fruit/nut/chocolate mix, and topped with a dollop of hazelnut chocolate spread.

Mmm, I love these cookies! The original recipe is from Make it Paleo by Bill Staley and Hayley Mason. I’ve made the recipe several times and really love the cookie dough batter. I’ve subsequently played with the add-ins and have decided that the cookie pictured above is my favorite so far!

Original Recipe:

Ingredients
5 slices nitrate-free bacon
1/4 cup pure maple syrup
3 cups blanched almond flour
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
2 eggs
1/2 cup pure maple syrup
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 cup coconut oil, unrefined
1.5 cups 72% dark chocolate chips

1. Preheat oven to bake at 350’F.
2. In a medium size mixing bowl, toss bacon in 1/4 cup maple syrup.
3. Lay bacon on a parchment-lined baking sheet.
4. Bake for 20 minutes.
5. Remove bacon from oven, and allow to cool.
6. Crumble candied bacon for cookie batter.
7. Heat oven to 375’F.
8. In a medium-sized mixing bowl combine dry ingredients.
9. In small mixing bowl beat eggs, 1/2 cup maple syrup, and vanilla extract with a hand mixer.
10. Pour wet ingredients into dry and beat with hand mixer until combined.
11. Add melted coconut oil into batter, and continue to blend until combined.
12. Stir in chocolate chips and candied bacon.
13. Drop balls of dough on parchment-lined baking sheet, about a tablespoon in size.
14. Bake cookies for 15 minutes at 375’F.
15. Let cool and serve.

My Notes: I’ve never done Steps 2-6. I think that candied bacon is too much for these cookies especially since there’s already maple syrup in the batter. If I do include bacon, I just chop up a few strips and fry them until most of the fat has been rendered out. I love these cookies, but it’s good to reduce the fat content where you can!

Baking these cookies for only 15 minutes keeps the cookies soft and moist. I’ve also baked them longer and they turned out crispier and flakier (if that floats your boat). I think the ingredient that I keep adding every time are chopped dried plums (prunes). They really make the cookie!

Crispier version with bacon, chocolate chips, chopped dried plums, and almond slivers.

Frida Kahlo sidewalk stencil, The Mission.