CtBF – duck fat cookies

I’m not sure that the name for these cookies, which are like sables or sandies, is all that enticing. Duck fat potatoes! A. Maze. Ing. Cookies? Well, I thought that I’d be able to find duck fat at WF because I’d found it there before – but that was well in the past. In the city. One of the last times I was down there, I even went out of my way to go to the same store – no dice! So, as I thought about it, I decided “I’ll make bacon fat cookies!” I’d really planned for that to be honest, but as I was lurking in the meat department, lo and behold – there it was! Duck fat. In the frozen case!! No price, and a pint of it – I have no idea what that set me back. Probably just as well.

Fast forward to a few days ago. I really considered also making the bacon fat ones (half and half), but around here, sometimes I don’t know what will go over well, so just went with the original recipe. I didn’t have currants, and really love cherries, so I used those, and got them nice and infused with brandy. From there, it’s pretty straightforward, mixing the butter and df with sugar, salt and then flour – finally adding in the cherries.

This is a super-soft dough. The melting point for the df is even lower than butter. So you need to move quickly – and I’d suggest putting the dough in the refrigerator before forming into the logs if your kitchen is hot. This makes 2 6″ logs, that get wrapped in plastic wrap and chilled. For the same reason, it took a long time to chill, by the next day it was reasonable. The logs get sliced, and then placed on a parchment-lined cookie sheet. With the fruit, the dough crumbles some when sliced, but were easily formed back together.These get baked for 12 minutes at 350 degrees. I did as suggested and turned the sheet around half-way through.

These are super crispy and delicate. The cherry and brandy flavors shine. The df – not 100% certain about it. Maybe I need to eat more!!Not sure if this exact recipe will be repeated. Maybe. I’m still intrigued about the bacon fat, and possibly adding an herby note like rosemary. To move it a bit more into the savory-sweet cookies that Dorie Greenspan introduced us to. I’ll be interested in seeing what others in our group thought about these cookies. I know for sure I’ll be happy to have more of that df for potatoes though…mmm…