[Photographs: Niko Triantafillou]
Among the current food trends in New York, bacon, or rather putting bacon in just about everything, has shown impressive longevity. But too often, especially with sweets, the addition of bacon seems like an overwrought afterthought. It's as if the bakers say, "Let's make a [insert any baked good here] and then throw bacon in it! And most of the time, it's no good.
This is definitely not the case with the Bacon Smack Cookie ($2.50) from Milk and Cookies. The main feature of this cookie is a tasty and aromatic maple-candied, cherry-wood-smoked bacon that blends effortlessly with the rest of the cookie's long ingredient list that includes dark chocolate, dried cranberries, toffee and graham cracker chunks. The toffee, dark chocolate and bacon create a pleasing trifecta of salty, sweet and cured meat flavors while the cranberries add the slightest bit of tartness and some additional texture. I also like that there are no big slabs of bacon to chew through, just plenty of small pieces which distribute the flavor to every bite.
In addition to the Smack, I highly recommend the salted oatmeal cookie ($2.50), a winning combination more bakers should take advantage of. The cookie has a strong toasted oatmeal flavor that's enhanced by tiny shards of sea salt on top. The resulting flavor bears very little resemblance to a traditional oatmeal cookie, as this flavor is much more "oaty."
Milk and Cookies Bakery
19 Commerce Street, New York, NY 10014 (map) 212-243-1640 milkandcookiesbakery.com
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