This Little Piggy: The Miss Piggy Bacon and Chocolate Chip Cookie, Volunteer Park Cafe, Seattle
Sunday, August 23, 2009 
Bacon in baked goods. It's hardly a new culinary trick, but it has enjoyed a bit of a vogue in recent years, showing up in everything from chocolates to brownies to cupcakes...and now, chocolate chip cookies.
When I visited Volunteer Park Cafe for the first time the other day with my buddies Neil and Judy, we tried out their "Miss Piggy" cookie--a generously sized chocolate chip cookie studded with bacon bits.
In general, I don't seek out bacon in baked goods, feeling like it's more often a shock-value addition than something intended to really bring out the flavors--but in this case, I did feel as if it actually worked. The bacon was used sparingly, so the taste was more of a whisper than a shout. While our consensus was that perhaps the bacon could have been slightly more crisp to add a texture contrast to the chewy cookie, it was overall a pretty successful use of sweet and savory. And for vegeterians, I'm pretty confident that the same would hold true if the cookie had been made with Morningstar's soy-based bacon.
What do you think about bacon in baked goods? Is it simply a shock-value addition, or are there delicious merits?
The Miss Piggy Cookie, Volunteer Park Cafe (call for availability), 1501 17th Avenue East, Seattle; online at alwaysfreshgoodness.com.
Reader Comments (11)
As a lover of bacon I say " Keep it out of my cookies!". The idea of it is gross to me.
I love it!!! I made chocolate chip cookies w/ bacon in them and I'm addicted. I make them OFTEN. I have also had them in brownies. I didn't make them, one of my friends did for me, but she just chopped regular cooked bacon and tossed in into a brownie box mix, so it was nothing special to blog about.
If you want to try bacon in chocolate chip cookies, you should try make the bacon like I did here:
http://nikisbakingspot.blogspot.com/2009/03/bacon-bacon-bacon-bacon.html
It helps make the bacon a salty-smokey-sweet addition instead of just a salty smokey addition
I love mixing sweet & salty, but I am not a fan of bacon, so for me, bacon + baked goods is a big no-no!
at a party catered by a fancy restaurant, i once tried a chocolate cupcake with bacon bits sprinkled over dark chocolate frosting. pure shock value-- i don't understand why chocolate and bacon (two very dark flavors) would go together!
bacon and caramel, bacon and syrup, bacon in sweet ice cream... all of those are things i could see becoming part of the current dessert culture. sweet and salty is a big thing!
I love sweet and salty too! Specially Salty Bacon!!
Years ago my mom was into the Sweet Potato Queens books. In the books they often talked about "Pig Candy," it was a slice of good bacon, coated with a thick layer of brown sugar, and baked until nice and crisp. They were so yummy.
I think a lot of what we are seeing is shock-value, but every once in a while a real gem of a recipe pops up.
i don't get the rage over bacon, but alas. some culinary trends are sure to escape me in my lifetime. i do appreciate this chocolate chip cookie though. you must have really zoomed in because it looks huge!! mmmm.
I agree with Niki--bacon adds several dimensions of flavor that can actually enhance baked goods and other foods it's used in. But that's just another reason to be judicious when adding it.
Someone bought bacon lollipops for my boyfriend as a joke, like "ew there's so much bacon in these lollipops," but he ended up wishing they were less sweet and more bacon-y, so, you know, it takes all kinds.
I have never had bacon in cookies, but the idea holds a weird fascination for me.
I think that the idea of bacon in cookies is a very interesting idea. The crispy and salty bacon would contrast nicely with the sweet and gooey goodness of the chocolate. I'll be sure to try a recipe out sometime!
I'm not a big fan of bacon. The taste will always depend on how it was cook. But, cookie n' bacon, I don't think that's a good combo.