Bacon and chocolate are a match made in heaven. Add in peanut butter and potato chips for the ultimate sweet and salty flavor combination. If you’ve never thought to add crisp, smoky bacon or crunchy, salty potato chips to a sweet treat…think again! These favorite salty snacks come together beautifully resulting in cookies that are anything but ordinary. The salt perfectly complements and balances the sugar, heightening the associated tastes and creating various flavor profiles. These addictive cookies are chewy, crunchy, buttery, sweet, and salty to satisfy every one of your taste buds. Plus, a pretzel dough adds a malty flavor to these Reese’s, bacon, and potato chip studded cookies. This salty-sweet twist is a perfect meld of flavors and textures creating a delicious not-too-sweet and savory treat.
This recipe was developed as part of an intense creative baking course where we explored the art of baking. We developed and honed our baking skills through a variety of different baked goods. Through the class, we found the balance of what baking is all about; art and science. We created our own recipes each anchored in their own flavor story that's true to Barth Bakery.
For this recipe, the flavor story was Elvis Presley's famous peanut butter, banana, and bacon sandwich. We omitted the banana, but brought in the fried flavor with potato chips to create a more savory twist on a classic sweet treat.
Makes about 20 large cookies
Ingredients
Reese’s Bacon Crunch Cookie Dough
225g unsalted butter, room temperature
225g dark brown sugar
125g light brown sugar
1 large egg
2g pure dark vanilla extract
180g all-purpose flour
120g pretzels, ground down to a powder in a food processor
4.5g baking powder
1.5g baking soda
6g kosher salt
85g cooked bacon, chopped
65g potato chips, gently crushed to smaller pieces (not crumbs)
180g Reese’s mini peanut butter cups
Directions
Reese’s Bacon Crunch Cookie Dough
Preheat oven to 375°F. Line baking sheets with parchment paper.
In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, combine the butter and sugars and cream together on medium-high speed for 2-3 minutes.
Scrape down the sides of the bowl and the paddle, add the egg and vanilla, and beat on high for 7-8 minutes, scraping down the sides of the bowl every few minutes as needed, until very light and fluffy.
In a separate medium bowl, combine the flour, pretzel powder, baking powder, baking soda, and salt and whisk together until thoroughly mixed.
Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients and mix on low speed just until the ingredients are evenly distributed, for about 30-45 seconds. (Do not overmix!)
Add the bacon, potato chips, and Reese’s. On low speed, mix just until incorporated, no more than 30-45 seconds.
Use a 2.75oz ice cream scoop to scoop the cookie dough onto the prepared baking sheets about 3-inches apart. Use your hand or the bottom of a measuring cup to flatten the cookies.
Wrap the sheets tightly in plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 1 hour, or overnight.
Bake the chilled cookies for 10-12 minutes, or until lightly golden brown on the edges. Cool the cookies for about 5 minutes on the baking sheets and then remove to a wire rack to cool completely.