Paleo Chocolate Chip Bacon Cookies

If you've never had chocolate chip cookie with candied bacon bits mixed in, I'm sorry, but you're missing out. (Sorry non meat eaters.)

They are the perfect combination of salty and sweet and they combine two of the most loved comfort foods.

Ingredients

For the cookies

• 3 cups almond flour (288 grams)
• 2/3 cup tapioca flour (81 grams)
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda (bicarbonate soda)
• 1/2 teaspoon sea salt
• 2 egg
• 1/2 cup maple syrup
• 1 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1/2 dark chocolate chips

For the bacon

• 5 thick slices bacon (if you're in the UK, you'll want to use streaky bacon - not the thick rashers because they won't crisp up as easily)
• 1 tablespoon maple syrup or sugar substitute of your choice

Method

1. First things first: prep your bacon. Preheat the oven to 400F/205C and line a baking tray with parchment paper.
   
2. Place your bacon in a small bowl and pour the maple over it, mixing around to coat the bacon. I find the easiest way to get an even coating is to just use my fingers to spread the maple. Once they are all evenly covered, spread the bacon out flat on the baking tray and bake in the oven for about 5 minutes. After the 5 minutes is up, flip the bacon over and cook an additional 5 minutes on the other side. Remove from the oven after it's cooked, but leave the bacon on the trays to cool. They will crisp up on the tray which gives the cookies a nice little crunch.
   
3.  On to the cookies! Lower the oven temperature to 375F/190C.
   
4. In a medium sized bowl mix together your dry ingredients. In a small mixing bowl, mix together your wet ingredients until fully mixed. Once your wet mixture is thoroughly mixed, pour the contents into your dry ingredients and stir until combined.
   
5.  At this point, your bacon should be cooled enough to handle. Cut the bacon into chocolate chip sized chunks.
   
   
   
   
   
6. After you've cut everything up, add the bacon bits and the chocolate chips to the cookie dough. If you'd like, you can save a little bacon pieces to push into your rolled cookie doug balls for baking.
   
   
   
   
   
7. Roll your dough into 1 inch balls and place a lined baking sheet. Bake for 10-12 minutes depending on your oven. If you're oven is like mine, you may need to flip the sheet around about halfway through cooking. If you like a flatter cookie, using the back of a spoon, press each cookie down to spread them out slightly.
   
   
   
   
   
   
8. This is the step where I should tell you to wait until the cookies cool before eating, but who does that?
   
   
   
   
   *Makes about 18 cookies