Dark Chocolate Chip & Bacon Cookies

My boyfriend Eric loves bacon. Well, actually he LOVES bacon. So when his birthday was approaching I decided to use his favorite food in a dessert that I could bake for him. Using bacon in desserts is pretty popular these days, so I looked online for some ideas, and in the end decided to go with a cookie recipe. This one I basically made up as I went along but overall they turned out fantastic! Eric was quite happy with them, so if he says they're good, all of you bacon lovers out there will probably feel the same way. Remember you can always switch out ingredients for your favorites. I chose dark chocolate because it's my favorite, but by all means use milk or bittersweet, or even white chocolate if you want. Butterscotch chips could be interesting as well. You could also use a different kind of bacon if you prefer. I used maple-cured bacon because it's a bit sweet, but you can also do something fun like a smokey bacon or even a peppery bacon for something really different.
What you'll need: 
8 slices maple-cured bacon
1 1/2 cups sugar
1 cup butter
2 eggs
2 tsp vanilla extract
2 cups all-purpose flour 
2/3 cup cocoa powder
3/4 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
1 1/2 cups dark chocolate chips
Direction:
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees
2. Cook the bacon in a skillet over medium-high heat, turning occasionally until evenly browned. (About 8-10 minutes) Set the bacon aside on a paper towel lined plate. When the bacon is cooled, crumble, or use kitchen scissors to cut into small pieces.
3. Beat the sugar, butter, eggs, and vanilla extract with a mixer until fluffy & smooth. (Tip: Before you bake with eggs or butter, let them sit out of the fridge for about 30 minutes to get to room temperature first. They'll mix better with the other ingredients and it will give you a better cookie in the end).
4. Next, mix in the flour, cocoa powder, salt & baking soda.
5. Mix in the dark chocolate chips and the bacon, then drop dough by rounded teaspoonfuls onto cookie sheets lined with parchment paper.  (Note: I'm a HUGE fan of parchment paper. If you don't use it, give it a try. The cookies will slide right off of the paper, no more sticking to the sheet and having a huge mess to clean up). 
6. Bake for 10-12 minutes, and let stand for about 5 minutes before transferring to wire racks to cool completely.