First off, just let me say that I am Junior CLA Art Undergrad and this assignment was insane. I can bullshit a five page essay/paper with the rest of 'em, but this was easily the most work I have done in recent memory. With that out of the way, I give you:
Ketchup Shortbread Cookie w/ Bacon
2 cups (260 grams) all-purpose flour
1/8 teaspoon (2 grams) salt
1 cup (2 sticks) (226 grams) salted butter, room temperature
1/4 cup (60 grams) powdered (confectioners or icing) sugar
1/4 cup Heinz 57 Simply Heinz ketchup
1 teaspoon (4 grams) pure vanilla extract
Bacon
That was my variation on this guy:
http://www.joyofbaking.com/shortbreads/shortbreadcookies.html#ixzz1XiDXitwz
Not much of a baker so I thought I might try to hack this with a simple recipe with an unusual ingredient. Came up with beef jerky as one idea and Heinz Ketchup as another.
Lots of people have been using bacon in everything these days, and it's been getting a free pass to move between sweet and savory, bacon jalapeno cookies, bacon and sea salt chocolate, etc.
Also I don't have a lot of time this weekend so I thought I would save some time prototyping with pre-made cookie dough.
I got sugar cookie dough and 3 kinds of Jack link's jerky.
In the interest of failing fast and failing often I did seven sugar cookies each with a variation in terms of amount of jerky/other fixings/presentation.
First batch turned out real messy.
Gross dough, too airy/crispy and somehow still greasy.
Led me to realise that when I bought sugar cookie dough, what I'd had mind was a shortbread, something a little more vague and less resistant to manipulation.
Borrowed a recipe for standad shortbread cookies from joyofbaking.com, thought I'd sub out some ingredients for more kethup-y flavor. Took out the sugar and replaced it with ketchup and a 1/2 ketchup 1/2 sugar mix.
[img]http://farm7.static.flickr.com/6077/6139444798_79f8c61b5f.jpg[/img]
Did a couple rounds of those guys. They were alright. Came out sorta like sugar cookies.
Added bacon.
[img]http://farm7.static.flickr.com/6182/6138895537_f61bd905a5_m.jpg[/img]
Voila!
I give 'em 2.5 stars. Not bad for a new baker...
More later on making good bacon once I figure out image tags on here.
-Sam
Ketchup is a unique idea, and some people put ketchup on everything. Maybe the next round could be something like ketchup and fries cookies so that the ketchup has another corresponding flavor that is familiar. I guess if you typically eat bacon with ketchup that could already be the case. Although it is close to bacon, a hot dog cookie with ketchup and mustard might fit well also. I thought the cookies tasted surprisingly good, despite the ketchup flavor, and not too shabby seeing your unfamiliarity with the topic!
Good idea of using premade cookies for rapid prototyping. Some of your images aren't linking properly, try using [IMG]asdf[/IMG] as opposed to lower case. Your images are live on Flickr. I will say the Ketchup threw me off a bit, Ketchup cookies might be one of the most unappealing sounding cookies I've heard, but they actually weren't too bad. Did you use flavored bacon?
I was really happy to see someone used ketchup in their recipe. How did I not think of this? I didn't happen to try a whole cookie with the bacon, but I suspect that would have added to the flavor. Overall I thought the cookies were pretty well done. What prompted you to eventually go with bacon instead of jerky? I like how right away you were set on prototyping. That was my initial thought as well (that I could make one dough and experiment with additional ingredients). I started with about 4 ideas and quickly realized I needed to narrow it down if I wanted to create something edible and not be baking the entire weekend.
I did not use flavored bacon, but I did sprinkle sugar over the last moments of cooking for that instantly carmelized goodness.