Three words for you: Bacon. Fat. Gingersnaps.
I ran across this recipe in the New York Times' cooking section, and stared at it, off and on, for two days before I decided to go ahead and give it a whirl. Now, as I am a proper Southerner, I always, ALWAYS have a crock of bacon grease at the ready (can't cook without it). So I microwaved that to liquefy it, and strained out 3/4 of a cup, which I promptly refrigerated. That, in turn, went into the food processor with sugar, flour, an egg, baking powder, salt, ginger, cinnamon, nutmeg and cloves. I went exactly (as best I recall) by the recipe; next time, I might sub 1/4 cup butter for part of the bacon fat (I use Wright's bacon almost exclusively, and it's very salty and very smoky), and I might up the spices just a bit, and I'd certainly reduce the salt.
But these babies are GOOD. I rolled the dough into about one-inch balls, which in turn baked up into about vanilla-wafer sized cookies, and about two of those will do you with a good cup of coffee. The recipe will make between 4 dozen and 5 dozen of this size cookie. When they cool, they're quite crisp, though mine never flattened out as much as the ones in the NYT pic.
Definitely a keeper, and a most intriguing addition to the Christmas gift baskets!
