Preheat your oven to 400°F.
Grab a rimmed baking sheet and a wire rack or a broiling pan. Line the baking sheet or the bottom of the broiling pan with foil. You’re going to place the bacon on the wire rack or the top of the broiling pan so all the fat drips away.
Put your brown sugar onto a plate or into some kind of small container with a rim. Toss the bacon in the brown sugar so its fully coated and place it on the rack or broiling pan. You can press more brown sugar into the bacon once its on the rack if you so desire.
Throw the whole thing into the oven and bake it for 15-20 minutes (turning half way), or until the sugar is melted and the bacon is fairly crispy.
EXTREME WARNING: CARAMELIZED BACON IS RIDICULOUSLY DELICIOIUS. DO NOT EAT IT ALL NOW.
In all honesty, caramelized bacon is one of the tastiest things I have ever eaten in my life. I’m going to make it and serve it to all my friends, all the time. EVERYONE needs to experience the awesome that is caramelized bacon.
Making the cookies 5. While the bacon is caramelizing, melt your chocolate (both kinds) and butter in a double boiler. To set this up, just put a heat proof bowl over a pot of boiling water such that the bowl does not touch the water itself. It is just being heated by the steam. This ensures even heating of the chocolate and gets everything nice and smooth.
Tip: Cut your chocolate into tiny pieces (image below)
Once everything is melted together and you have a creamy chocolate sauce, take it off the heat and let it cool for a couple minutes.
Pour in your sugar and vanilla and give it a good mix. Stir for a couple minutes so the sugar is perfectly distributed throughout the entire mixture. You can easily do this in a stand mixer with the paddle attachment, but I like doing this by hand (i.e. I don’t have a stand mixer).
Add your eggs, one by one, mixing each one in completely before you add the next 9. Add your flour. Make sure you sift it before you add it to the batter so that you don’t get lumps. Give it a good stir.
. At this point, your bacon should be ready and cooled. Chop it up into small pieces, but not too small so that it gets lost in the cookie. The next time I make these, I’ll leave the bacon pieces a bit bigger. Mix these into your cookie batter, as well.
. Spoon out your batter onto a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper. These really should make 12-16 cookies, but I only got 10 out of my batter. I like big cookies.
. Bake these for about 10 minutes at 375°F. You’ll know they are done when the outsides have hardened slightly, but the inside is still soft.
Remember: Don’t eat all the caramelized bacon before you get a chance to put them into the cookies. It’s tempting, I know. But be strong… or just make extra.
