Duck Fat Cookies | David Lebovitz

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.