These days I have an overabundance of two things in my fridge: pecans and bacon.
My parents grew up around pecan trees, and although they don’t have any on their property there are a LOT of people in the neighborhood who have them but don’t want to take the time to pick them off the ground in their yards. The entire fall this past year my parents would pick up 2 grocery bags worth of pecans on their run in the mornings…and wound up with 200 pounds of pecans. That means extra for me, and that means extra pecan recipes for YOU!
Now the bacon thing, well, I don’t know if the explanation is as elaborate. I like bacon. Nate likes bacon. So we bought bacon and now we have to make stuff with it.
Rough life, I know.
Needless to say, I’ve been trying to dream of recipes that require one or both of those ingredients and decided that the first we would try is Bacon Maple Pecan Shortbread. Extra butter please.
This recipe is fabulous, although I would recommend making some kind of maple glaze to go on these cookies. Shortbread is notoriously more dry than say a chocolate chip cookie, and besides glazes are fun.
Alas, I was lazy and apathetic and didn’t get the ingredients for said glaze. I was more concerned about frying the bacon and melting into the smell of it than buying powdered sugar at the overcrowded grocery store. Cest la vie.
HOWEVER, if you would like a glaze, I would recommend using about 2 cups of powdered sugar with 1 Tbsp of maple syrup and 1 Tbsp of milk. Done and done!
BACON MAPLE PECAN SHORTBREAD
- 1 1/2 sticks of butter, softened
- 1/2 cup dark brown sugar, packed
- 2 Tbsp maple syrup
- 1 tsp vanilla
- 2 cups flour
- 3 slices of bacon, cooked to crisp and then chopped
- 3/4 cup pecans, chopped
Preheat oven to 350. Grease two cake pans (mine were 8″ cake pans) and set aside. Cream together the butter and sugar, add syrup and vanilla, and mix well. Add in the flour and mix till just combined. Fold in the bacon. Divide the crumbly “batter” into the two pans and press evenly on the bottom of the pan. Press the chopped pecans into the top and bake at 350 for 20-25 minutes. While they’re still hot cut them into slices, then let cool completely before removing from pan. Drizzle with glaze if you’re going that route.
Eat!
I always like the last step in these recipes – not that we need to be instructed to eat anything with bacon, but the reinforcement is nice 😉
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This post was created as part of the Denny’s and Foodbuzz BACONALIA challenge and is an entry to win the grand prize!
There are people with pecan trees that don’t USE the pecans??? For shame! I want these cookies, with or w/out a glaze!
It amazes me how you can make something out of anything! Yum on the bacon! 🙂
If there is anything I need in my life right now, I think it’s these.
I think you would die of happiness. For real.
I think i’m the only person in the world that doesn’t like bacon! One of my good friends wants to disown be because of it 🙂
I just started loving pecans about 5 years ago…I missed out for a 25 years!
These look insane! I can just imagine the delicious sweet and salty combo. Please don’t stop creating treats like this!
A man that hates bacon? If he wasn’t so good-looking I might question your attraction to him 😉
No way, he LOVES it!
That sounds so tasty! I would love to see a pecan tree. I’ve never seen any nut tree in my whole life. That’s just awesome.
This is really the GOOD stuff!! I could eat this morning, noon and night and then midnight! 🙂
this looks bomb! Pecans are so expensive, however mom and dad see to have a good method 🙂
Omg… a pecan tree would be amazing. Those suckers can get expensive!
I bet that is an awesome flavor combo. You bring some of these and I’ll bring you some TJs goods. Deal? 😉
Done!
this. is. amazing.
As if shortbread wasn’t good enough! This looks fantastic – love your adventurous recipes 🙂
Wow! This looks amazing Heather! I love shortbread 🙂
You are crazy (in a good way!)! I love bacon with maple syrup so this would probably be amazing.