Remember curried hummus with cilantro almond pesto? I lied. No matter how good something is, I can get tired of eating it. I ended up with a small amount left of the pesto. The hummus I made into a hummus bread, which I’ll post about later. While I could have eaten the pesto easily with some pasta, or use it as a sandwich spread, I decided to put it in cookies!

I remember seeing some Christmas cookies that are swirled with chocolate or crushed peppermint candy canes or something, so this is a take on those recipes. I wanted to make them with just a pure pesto swirl, but didn’t have quite enough, so I cooked some bacon and cut it into little bits, and added it to the pesto.

Anyway, they turned out even better than I expected. They are a little bit crumbly and delicate, but overall, a nice savory change for cookies.

Bacon Pesto Swirl Cookies

ingredients

2 cups flour

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/4 teaspoon salt

9 Tablespoons unsalted butter, room temperature

2 Tablespoons granulated sugar

1 egg

3 ounces bacon bits, cooked and cooled

1/3 cup pesto recipe of your choice

method

Sift flour, baking soda, and salt into a bowl and stir with a whisk until well blended. Set aside. In another bowl, with a hand held mixer, cream the butter and sugar until blended and fluffy. Add one egg, and blend again until well incorporated. Add flour in increments and mix on low until resembles sand with pea-size lumps. Dough should be crumbly, but hold its shape when pinched. Wrap in plastic wrap and place in the refrigerator for at least one hour.

Combine bacon with pesto in a small container. Stir with a spatula to mix well. Set aside.

After an hour, roll out dough into a 10-inch by 14-inch rectangle (or as close as you can to those dimensions), and spread bacon pesto on entire surface. Roll up dough, starting from one 14-inch side to the other, and place in the refrigerator for several hours to overnight.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Prepare baking sheets with parchment paper. Remove from refrigerator and slice into cookies with about 1/4 inch thickness, starting from one side of the log. Space cookies apart on baking sheet and bake for 10-12 minutes, rotating sheets once halfway through the baking time. Transfer cookies with a spatula to wire rack to cool completely.