Maple Syrup and Smoky Bacon Crisp Cookies

I’m back! Did you miss me?
We have moved home and are settling in fine. I'm getting to grips with lots of new things including, most importantly for me, a new oven. It’s a powerful beast and seems to cook and bake food very fast. One minute it’s fine, the next burnt to a crisp. I shall persevere!
I wanted to try something relatively simple for my first post back after my hiatus (a huge thanks to Lisa at United Cakedom for hosting Treat Petite in February for me btw!!).

Cookies are normally quite a straightforward recipe, but I still wanted to pack in as much flavor as possible, so I opted for something reminiscent of a favorite breakfast of mine -  maple syrup and bacon (minus the pancakes). But I didn’t go for real bacon pieces, which I have incorporated into cookies before. Instead, I went for smoky bacon flavor crisps (or potato chips depending on where you are in the world). I’m not even sure that smoky bacon crisps are available around the world, so apologies if you are reading this somewhere, where you can’t buy them (I’m sure you can pick them up online if not).

Crisps (or potato chips) in cookies seem quite popular after scouting about the internet, so this wasn’t too weird a combo to try. And there are plenty of cookies with maple syrup in them of course (mines was adapted from Allrecipes.com). To get the crisps in there, you just crush them up and fold them in at the end, so they are dotted through each cookie, giving you a sweet/savoury and smoky hit in each bite.

The cookies are thin and delicate and need to be fully cooled, so that they don’t fall apart. You can see the pieces of crisps fleckled through them, so you get an idea of what is inside. I used three bags of crisps, but you could easily use 4 or 5 to get an even more bacon(y) hit.
Here’s how I made them;
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Maple Syrup and Smoky Bacon Crisp Cookiesby S Vettese March-2-2016Cookies made with maple syrup and crushed bacon flavor potato crispsIngredients

• 225 grams unsalted butter, softened
• 190 grams light brown sugar
• 1 medium egg
• 250 ml good quality maple syrup
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 2 teaspoons bicarbonate of soda
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 400 grams plain flour
• 3-4 bags smoky bacon crisps

InstructionsPreheat the oven to 180C (160C fan) and line two cookie sheets with greaseproof paper.Sift together the flour, bicarb and salt in a bowl and set aside.In a food mixer, beat together the butter and brown sugar until smooth and creamy.Add the egg and vanilla, beating until fully incorporated.Add one third of the flour and beat until no raw flour is seen. Add one half of the maple syrup and stir this through.Repeat with another third of the flour, the last half of syrup, then the last part of flour.Transfer the crisps to a food bag and crush them, but not to tiny smithereens. Gently fold the crushed crisps into the cookie batter.Scoop out dollops of the dough with an ice cream scoop or regular spoon and space them well apart as they do spread. Slightly flatten the ‘dollops’ to help them on their way.Bake them in the oven for 10 to 12 minutes or until they turn golden amber in color.Transfer the greaseproof paper with the cookies on them to a cooling rack and allow them to cool fully. Enjoy your smoky, sweet and salty cookie!DetailsPrep time: 20 mins Cook time: 12 mins Total time: 32 mins Yield: 20 approx.