Bacon Maple Sugar Cookie Pigs of Love

Preheat oven to 350 F. Cover a baking sheet completely with tin foil. Place a raised rack on the baking sheet. Lay the bacon strips across the raised rack. Bake the bacon for 20 to 25 minutes. Remove pan from oven; set aside to cool for 10 minutes. Place bacon in a food processor, and process until finely crumbled; set aside. Save 2 tablespoons of the grease and discard or use the rest for another purpose.

In a large bowl using an electric mixer, mix reserved bacon grease, butter, and sugars for 2 minutes on medium speed. Add egg; mix for 1 minute. Add maple extract; mix for 1 minute. Add bacon, salt and pepper; mix for 1 minute. On low speed, slowly add flour; mix until just incorporated.

Roll the dough out on a well-floured surface with a floured rolling pin to 1/4-inch thickness. Cut out shapes with a cookie cutter (I used a pig shape). Combine scraps of dough together and roll out and cut again, until you have used all of the dough.

Place cookies on a Silpat or parchment paper lined baking sheet, spacing them about an inch apart. Put the pan into the oven and bake for 8 minutes. Remove pan from oven.

Allow cookies to cool on baking sheet for 5 minutes, before removing to a rack to cool completely.

After cookies have completely cooled, mix all of the icing ingredients in a medium sized bowl. Pour mixture into a decorating bottle. Outline cookie with icing first, then go back and fill in the outline to cover the entire cookie. Place a candy heart on the pig if desired, and then set the cookie aside for the icing to set up.

Allow cookies to set for several hours, giving the icing enough time to completely harden. Store cookies in an airtight container in the refrigerator.