Maple-Bacon-Blueberry Cookies

Updated: May 23, 2022

Top breakfast flavors combined into one tasty bite. Trust me on the bacon!

Recipe Development At It's Finest

Developing this recipe was so much fun and I learned ALOT. This winter I signed up for Christina Tosi's online recipe development class with Monthly. If you are not familiar with Tosi, she is the pastry chef behind Milkbar. I am a huge fan girl 🤩

In this class you go through three sections: cookies, pie and cakes. In each section you bake a classic Milkbar recipe and she then walks you through the recipe development process so that you can make your own recipe. I think this might have been the 5th time I made these?? They have come a LONG way and I'm so excited to finally get to share it!

Breakfast in a Cookie

I know what you must be thinking, "Bacon with blueberries? It will never work." You have heard it here first, YES! YES IT DOES! What feels like forever ago, my husband and I were making blueberry waffles for friends the morning after a night out. I saw my friend stab a piece of bacon, then a piece of waffle and eat it together. I truly had never even thought of it and to be honest I'm not sure he even realized what he just did! Since that seemingly irrelevant moment I now always rip up my bacon to eat atop waffles and smother it with maple syrup :) And in typical me fashion I now try to find baked goods I can jam these flavors into.

A Balance of Savory and Sweet

This recipe has a maple syrup flavored dough with mix ins of dried blueberries and pieces of bacon. The maple and blueberry give you bright sweet notes in a delicate way. Though you might think the bacon over powers it, it really compliments the flavors while still letting each one shine! The dough also has enough salt to keep the addition of maple syrup from being achingly sweet.

Dried Vs Fresh Blueberries

I tried this recipe with both fresh and dried and trust me when I say, there is a big difference! The fresh blueberries added too much moisture to the dough making the cookies spread out a lot. I found dried blueberries from Trader Joe's and they provide a concentrated blueberry flavor, while adding a nice chew to the cookie.

Maple Sugar Cookie Dough

Another thing I learned from this class was that I was not creaming my sugars and butter long enough. Like, hardly even close to what one should be doing. This first stage is really important so that your cookies get the right texture and that the butter doesn't leak out. The creaming process should last around 7 minutes! Honestly, time yourselves! The dough should be light and fluffy like a frosting. And when I say light in color I mean MUCH lighter, almost white. I suggest beating on medium-high. If you have never made your dough like this before, I strongly recommend trying it this one time and seeing if you ever go back to your old process :)

Baking that Bacon

PLEASE make sure to cook your bacon prior to adding to your dough. The baking time for these cookies would not be long enough to cook it thoroughly. ALSO the added fat from the bacon would make these cookies extra greasy. If you want the bacon to really stand out in the look of these cookies (similar to my images), cook an extra two slices that you top the dough with right before adding to the oven.

If you are not a bacon person, I totally get it!! These cookies sans bacon are still awesome. Or you can be a hero and add chocolate chips instead. Idk, just spit balling here!