Bacon Cookie Butter Cookies

Ingredients

• 18 slices bacon (slices cut in half, see Notes)
• ½ cup cookie butter (or peanut butter)
• ½ cup unsalted butter (at room temperature)
• ½ packed cup brown sugar
• ½ cup white sugar
• 1 large egg (at room temperature)
• ½ teaspoon pure vanilla extract
• 1 ¼ cups all-purpose flour
• ¾ teaspoon fresh baking soda
• 1 ⅛ teaspoon salt
• 1 tablespoon powdered sugar
• 1 large pinch cinnamon (more or less to taste)
• 1 pinch salt
• 1 tablespoon milk of choice (as needed)

Steps

1. 1

   Line large cookie sheets with parchment paper and set aside. Line plate with paper towels and set aside.

2. 2

   Heat large skillet over medium-high heat. When pan is warm, add halved slices of bacon and cook, flipping as needed, until bacon is crisp but not burnt. Transfer cooked bacon to plate lined with paper towels. Repeat process until all bacon has been cooked. Set bacon aside until needed.

3. 3

   Add ½ cup cookie butter, ½ cup unsalted butter, ½ packed cup brown sugar, ½ cup white sugar, 1 large egg, and ½ teaspoon pure vanilla extract to large mixing bowl. Use hand mixer or stand mixer to mix ingredients together until well combined.

4. 4

   Once combined, add 1 ¼ cups all-purpose flour, ¾ teaspoon fresh baking soda, and 1 ⅛ teaspoon salt to bowl. Continue mixing until ingredients are fully incorporated.

5. 5

   When dough is combined, break cooled bacon into small pieces. Add 1 cup bacon pieces to cookie dough and stir to incorporate fully. Reserve remaining bacon pieces for topping prepared cookies.

6. 6

   Using cookie scoop, scoop evenly sized portions of cookie dough out of bowl. Roll each scoop quickly between palms of hands just to smooth into cookie dough ball, then place dough ball on prepared cookie sheet. Repeat until all cookie dough has been rolled and transferred to cookie sheets.

7. 7

   Place cookie sheets in refrigerator and chill dough 1 hour. Alternately, place cookie sheets in freezer and freeze dough 15 minutes.

8. 8

   Before removing cookie sheets from fridge or freezer, preheat oven to 375° Fahrenheit. Remove cookie sheets and rearrange cookie dough as needed to create enough space between each.

9. 9

   Place cookie sheets with chilled dough in preheated oven. Bake cookies 8 minutes, then begin checking doneness. Continue baking, checking doneness every 1 minute or so, until edges of cookies are set and centers of cookies are still soft. Cookies should look slightly underbaked.

10. 10

    Carefully remove cookie sheets from oven and set aside. Let cookies rest on cookie sheets 10 minutes, then transfer cookies to wire cooling rack and set aside until completely cooled.

11. 11

    Add 1 tablespoon powdered sugar, at least 1 large pinch cinnamon, and 1 pinch salt to medium mixing bowl. Mix to incorporate, then add 2 to 3 drops milk of choice.

12. 12

    Whisk until mixture is completely smooth, adding small amounts of milk only as needed to achieve desired consistency. Use less milk for thicker, more frosting-like glaze and more milk for thinner, runnier glaze.

13. 13

    When satisfied with glaze consistency, drizzle glaze over completely cooled cookies. Sprinkle remaining pieces of bacon on top of cookies and serve.