bacon chocolate chip cookies! oh my!

This week's creation is bacon chocolate chip cookies. The best salty, sweet, soft, chewy, delicious treat around! I know adding bacon to anything is all the rage now, but it's true! Bacon really makes almost anything better! The first time I had even heard of these is when I started working at a bakery in Chicago. I was blown away that I hadn't seen these before, because they are sooooo good! 
This isn't the recipe from said bakery, but it's still incredible. You could really take any chocolate chip cookie recipes and just add chopped bacon to it. You can use as much or as little bacon as you like. 

This is a picture of my batter, so you can see the bacon and how like the chocolate chips you want enough to have some in every cookie but not so much that you overload your cookie. 






On another note, I unfortunately won't be able to post next week because I will be out of town on my days off and won't have time to make anything or write. 

Now onto the recipe!!

Bacon Chocolate Chip Cookies
yield: 2 dozen (24 cookies)

soft unsalted butter  3/4 pound
sugar  1 cup
brown sugar  1 cup
eggs   3 each
vanilla extract  1 1/2 tsp
all purpose flour  3 1/4 cups
baking soda   1 1/2 tsp
salt   1 1/2 tsp
chocolate chips   3 cups
bacon, diced   6 slices

Preheat oven to 350 F. While oven is preheating bake bacon till done (or cook bacon however you like). While bacon is cooking, cream butter and sugars together till smooth. Then add eggs and vanilla, beat till smooth. Add flour, baking soda, and salt, mix till just combined. Then add chocolate chips and diced bacon, mix till just combined. Can scoop and bake immediately or can chill batter till use later. Or scoop and freeze cookie dough to be baked later (can pull and bake frozen). Bake for 7 minutes rotate then bake 7 minutes. Let cool and enjoy! Caution these are addicting!

Savory Scones

This week I made savory scones. At the request of my husband he wanted jalapeno cheddar scones. As we go shopping for the ingredients I asked if he really wanted cheddar or if he'd prefer something else? He opted for pepper jack (I knew he would). Then I asked how bout adding some bacon? He said do you have to ask?! Then while I was picking out some fresh jalapenos, he saw them.... the tiny, orange, deadly habanero... He couldn't be more excited to ask if I could add those as well. So this simple jalapeno cheddar scone evolved into a bacon, pepper jack, jalapeno, habanero scone! Wow!

The recipe I used is one I've used before that I found on pinterest. It was for a bacon, cheddar, scallion scone (which by the way is delicious!), and I tweaked it to my needs for the hubby's dream scone.

Some suggestions:1) I like to bake my bacon while my oven is preheating, but you are more than welcome to cook your bacon any way you like as long as it's cooked. 2)  Also if you are lucky, unlike me, buy pre-shredded cheese. I couldn't find shredded pepper jack (I have seen it before) so I had to grate the cheese myself, which isn't hard but c'mon who wants to do that? 3) Big one! While dicing habaneros wear gloves! Oh my goodness wear gloves! I have never worked with this pepper before, I know better than to touch my face or anything after handling peppers but my fingers literally got burned from them. 4) Sprinkle some flour onto your counter and press the dough into a thick flat circle and cut into 8 wedges (see picture) I like doing it that way the best, or you can form the dough into a rectangle and cut wedges, or be unconventional and make crazy shaped scones! Be creative!

Bacon, Pepper Jack, Jalapeno, Habanero scones:

preheat oven to 400 F

yield 8 scones

bacon, diced   6 slices

all purpose flour     10 ounces

baking powder   2 tsp

sugar       1 tsp

salt     1/2 tsp

cheese, shredded   5 ounces

cold butter, cubed   5 Tb

heavy cream     2/3 cup

jalapenos,diced  2 each

habaneros, diced   2  each

measure flour, baking powder, sugar and salt into mixing bowl. add cold butter and paddle till mixture looks crumbly. add cheese and peppers mix till ingredients are dispersed. add heavy cream, mix until just combined. press dough into desired shape and cut 8 wedges. bake at 400 F for 10 minutes, rotate then bake another 10 minutes. Bottoms should be golden brown, and middles firm. 

Banana bread! yum!

So yesterday's baking experience was banana bread. I had 3 lovely bananas that were getting too ripe for eating. I wish I had taken a picture of the bananas to show the coloring. I really should've  let them go another day or two. The more ripe (brown) they get the more flavor they'll give your bread. If you have bananas that are too ripe to eat and don't have time to utilize them right away I recommend peeling them and freezing them. You can pull them anytime you have the urge to make some delicious banana bread or muffins or use them in a smoothie!
Now the recipe I used is the one my mother used, who by the way hates bananas but would make banana bread for us because my dad my brother and myself love bananas  <3. My dad would take a couple of slices and smear them with butter and pop them in the microwave for a few seconds; so it would be nice and warm and buttery. Yum!
My mom's recipe calls for either shortening or margarine. I prefer to use margarine or if you have room temperature butter will work great too! This time I didn't have margarine in the house and I was too impatient to wait for butter to warm up, so I used shortening.  It works in a pinch but I feel you lose some flavor using it. This is a simple yet delicious recipe, which you can make your own by adding chocolate chips, nuts, dried fruit,  or anything that strikes your fancy!
My daughter and I had fun making this together, she's 18 months old, she had a blast mashing the bananas for me. And for her first taste of banana bread it seems as if she is a fan! If you all give it a try I hope you like it as much as she and I do!

Banana bread:
Ingredients -
Shortening, margarine, or butter (room temperature ) 1/2 cup
Sugar 1 cup
Eggs 2 each
Bananas 3 each
Flour 2 cups
Baking soda 1 tsp
Salt pinch

Preheat oven 350° F
Cream margarine and sugar together. Add eggs beat till smooth. Add mashed bananas. Then add flour, baking soda,  and salt. Mix till just combined.
Pour batter into greased loaf pan, bake 45 minutes or until toothpick comes out clean.

Hello!

Well, this is my very first blog ever! So let me introduce myself. My name is Virginia and I am a pastry cook. I wanted to find a way where I could share my love of baking and really to get myself to bake at home more often. Since I bake all day at work it is hard to get motivated to do it at home as well, especially with and 18 month old daughter demanding my every bit of free time attention. 
Anyway my goal is to bake something and post about it once a week! It will be great to continue my craft at home and to get my baby girl involved too! 
I'll be writing about what I make, my favorite recipes, projects I might be doing at work, anything fun and exciting about the baking world that I see on Pinterest or magazines, and about being a mom, wife, and a self admitted geek! 
Please stay tuned! I am hoping to have pictures and write tonight or tomorrow about this banana bread I made this morning!

Thanks!