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Duck Fat Chocolate Chip Cookies

A delightful chocolate chip cookie experiment.  What’s better: chocolate chip cookies or duck fat chocolate chip cookies?

These duck fat chocolate chip cookies are a great alternative to the traditional cookie. Only 10 minutes to bake! >> Honey and Birch | www.honeyandbirch.com

I had a little Maple Leaf Farms duck fat leftover after making my cornbread recipe, so I decided to do a little duck fat experiment this week.  I put on my apron and oven mitts (the kitchen equivalent to lab coat and goggles) and got to experimenting. 

Hypothesis: Duck fat chocolate chip cookies taste better than regular chocolate chip cookies.

I mixed up 2 batches of chocolate chip cookie dough.  They were exactly the same except one batch is half duck fat, half butter and the other batch is all butter. 

I wrapped up each batch individually in plastic wrap and put it into the refrigerator for ½ hour before baking.

Duck Fat vs Butter

These duck fat chocolate chip cookies are a great alternative to the traditional cookie. Only 10 minutes to bake! >> Honey and Birch | www.honeyandbirch.com

The differences were noticeable right away – when I spooned the dough onto cookie sheets, the duck fat dough was greasier than the regular dough. 

It also didn’t want to hold the chocolate chips.  (Keep that in mind when you make these cookies.)

I used the same tablespoon to spoon out the dough so that each cookie would be roughly the same size.  Each cookie sheet had ½ a dozen of each kind of cookie dough so that I could truly say that they had the same “baking” conditions. 

My biology teacher would be proud to see that I remembered so much about experiments.  I was proud.  🙂

These duck fat chocolate chip cookies are a great alternative to the traditional cookie. Only 10 minutes to bake! >> Honey and Birch | www.honeyandbirch.com
These duck fat chocolate chip cookies are a great alternative to the traditional cookie. Only 10 minutes to bake! >> Honey and Birch | www.honeyandbirch.com

You can see in the picture above that the duck fat chocolate chip cookies spread out more.  They are flatter and the chocolate chips are more visible in the cookie.  The regular cookies are more compact, thanks to the time in the refrigerator.

Taste tests were run and I really like them both. Duck fat chocolate chip cookies are a nice change to a cookie that can sometimes be boring. 

Chocolate chip cookie lovers – please don’t hate me for saying that.  But you have to admit that while the same old traditional thing is nice sometimes, it is also safe and boring.  Change is good!

So the conclusion to my experiment is – duck fat chocolate chip cookies are the best!  Mr. B. likes them, so does our neighbor.  Mr. B. is bringing them into work today so I won’t know the conclusion to that part of my experiment until later but I have a feeling that my conclusion will hold true. 

The regular cookies are good too – if you’re looking for a good chocolate chip cookie recipe, this one is pretty darn delicious.  You could always substitute the duck fat for butter.

These duck fat chocolate chip cookies are a great alternative to the traditional cookie. Only 10 minutes to bake! >> Honey and Birch | www.honeyandbirch.com

Duck Fat Chocolate Chip Cookies

These duck fat chocolate chip cookies are a great alternative to the traditional cookie. Only 10 minutes to bake! >> Honey and Birch | www.honeyandbirch.com
Duck Fat Chocolate Chip Cookies

Duck Fat Chocolate Chip Cookies

Yield: 6 servings
Prep Time: 10 minutes
Cook Time: 12 minutes
Total Time: 22 minutes

Chocolate chip cookies made with butter and rendered duck fat.

Ingredients

  • 1 ¼ cup flour
  • ½ teaspoon baking soda
  • ½ teaspoon salt
  • ½ cup brown sugar
  • ½ cup white sugar
  • ¼ cup duck fat
  • ¼ cup butter
  • 1 large egg
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
  • 1 cup semisweet chocolate chips

Instructions

  1. Combine the flour, baking soda and salt in a small bowl. Stir with a whisk and set aside.
  2. In the bowl of a stand mixer, beat the duck fat, butter, brown sugar and white sugar.
  3. When combined add the egg and vanilla extract . Mix until well combined.
  4. Beat in the flour mixture until just combined.
  5. Turn off the mixer and with a wooden spoon add the chocolate chips.
  6. Wrap up the cookie dough in plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 30 minutes.
  7. While that the dough is chilling, preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Line 2 cookie sheets with parchment paper or use cookie sheet liners.
  8. Use a tablespoon to drop the cookie dough onto the prepared cookie sheets. Drop them equal distance apart.
  9. Bake for 10-12 minutes, until the edges are slightly browned. Transfer to a wire rack to cool.

Notes

Adapted from The Good Housekeeping Cookbook.

Nutrition Information:
Yield: 6 Serving Size: 2 cookies
Amount Per Serving: Calories: 514Total Fat: 26gSaturated Fat: 13gTrans Fat: 0gUnsaturated Fat: 11gCholesterol: 60mgSodium: 362mgCarbohydrates: 70gFiber: 2gSugar: 47gProtein: 5g

Nutrition information is automatically calculated and may not be correct.

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Sharon

Monday 11th of May 2020

Made them tonight for my bf who loves sweets and between both of us we almost already ate the whole batch. I’m not exaggerating when I say these are the best chocolate chip cookies we’ve ever had. I did add chopped toasted walnuts, added a tad more vanilla and sprinkled pink salt on them before popping them in the fridge . My bf was hesitant to try them bc of the duck fat but we couldn’t taste the duck at all.. it was simply rich and ever so slightly savory. I’ll be using this recipe til end days. Thank u!

Jenny

Tuesday 12th of May 2020

So excited to hear this Sharon! I haven't made these cookies in a while and just ordered some duck fat so I can make a batch.

Sharon

Monday 11th of May 2020

Oven * in lieu of fridge

Danny K

Monday 25th of April 2016

Doubt this will get read on a 2-year old post but having just made chocolate chip cookies with lard to excellent results I was curious to find if anyone had done it with duck fat! These look awesome and I've gotta try this myself soon.

One bit of wisdom if you ever go with making these again: the dough was likely greasier because, well, there was more grease in it! Butter is 80% fat + 20% liquid, while duck fat is 100% fat. To get a perfect control experiment, try baking with 2 ounces butter (1/4 cup) and 1.6 ounces of duck fat rather than a straight quarter cup of each. The extra spread from the duck fat is likely because of the overall increased fat content of the cookies. They'll come out similar in appearance, but then you'll really get to compare the flavors!

Jenny

Monday 25th of April 2016

Thanks Danny! I will try out your ratio the next time I make this recipe.

Lancelot Ottley

Saturday 2nd of August 2014

These cookies are one of my favorite snack

Diane Carnel Gavazan

Saturday 2nd of August 2014

These cookies look delish. Can't wait to try them. :)

ivan p

Saturday 2nd of August 2014

looks delicious, imma try this

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