Have you ever worked with a whole duck? Its versatility is simply amazing. You can make duck confit with the legs or sear the breasts for a fancier meal. Best of all, the fat rendered gives you something valuable to work with. Replete with monounsaturated fat, duck fat is considered a healthy fat. (But consume with moderation for the fact that it is also high in unhealthy saturated fat and cholesterol.) Collect, strain the duck fat and save it for later use. It adds great flavor to fried potatoes or omelets. On the sweet side of things, bake some duck fat cookies. The flavor and texture may surprise you.
A typical cookie recipe follows a 1-2-3 ratio. That means one part sugar, two parts fat and three parts flour. This recipe from David Lebovitz’s My Paris Kitchen is not like a typical recipe. It has equal parts, more or less, in the three key ingredients. 150 grams of sugar, 140 grams of fat (85 grams duck fat and 55 grams unsalted butter) and 175 grams of all-purpose flour. Relatively and/or nominally, there is more sugar than fat, and less flour than in most cookies.
I used currants soaked in Armagnac as an add-in. Duck fat, butter and sugar are creamed at low-speed in a stand mixer. Next, add the dry ingredients to the fat mixture. Chill the cookie dough before dividing and setting the slices on the baking sheets.( A short time in the freezer makes slicing the dough a little easier and neat.) Bake at 350°F for about 15 minutes.
The duck fat cookies do not taste as sweet as the recipe may suggest. These cookies are crisper given the higher amount of sugar. The duck fat flavor is apparent. You can smell it while kneading the dough. You may even taste it, if you are the knowing baker who mixes all the ingredients. For anyone else, it’s probably hard to tell duck fat is there. Meanwhile, most would find the rich flavor and the crispy texture of these cookies irresistible. Fresh out of the oven, I had a few of the duck fat cookies for afternoon tea. They’re delightful.
Check and see whether our friends at Cook-the-book-fridays like these cookies as much as I do.
8 Comments
dulceshome
July 21, 2018 at 11:09 amSo happy that you enjoyed these!! Surprise ingredient indeed. I bet the currants and armagnac were delicious. Used cherries and brandy for mine. But it added a nice depth of flavor. Yours look great!!!
Chez Nana
July 21, 2018 at 11:38 amI was surprised that these tasted so good. Yours look great.
Teresa
July 21, 2018 at 10:12 pmThe higher sugar content in these cookies works so well! It gave an almost candy-ish quality to the browned bits of the cookie. Everyone who has tried these so far has loved them. Yours look perfect!
Shirley@EverOpenSauce
July 23, 2018 at 2:56 amInteresting you bring up how sugar caramelizes the edge of the cookie, adding another level of deliciousness.
Cher
July 22, 2018 at 7:35 pmGlad you enjoyed these – it was a fun surprise ingredient to work with. I usually keep a tub of duck fat in the fridge for smashed fried potatoes, so this made for a simple pantry dive treat.
Shirley@EverOpenSauce
July 23, 2018 at 2:59 amYes, a tub of duck is a treat and a good thing to have around.
Katie from ProfWhoCooks
July 23, 2018 at 10:00 amYes, out of the oven delightful is definitely the word for these cookies! That’s great to know about the ratios and why the cookie tasted and the dough acted the way they did.
kitchen therapy
July 23, 2018 at 10:49 pmThey sound amazing! I bought all the ingredients however I feel under the weather and duck fat is not something I an stomach at the moment, but will definitely like to try these 🙂