Cheddar Bacon Beer Bread Muffins

Preheat oven to 350 degrees and spray a 12-cup muffin pan with cooking spray. Cook bacon in a large skillet until crispy, and reserve the bacon grease. Let bacon cool, then crumble/chop and set aside. In a large bowl whisk togethre cheddar cheese, flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt until well combined. In a separate, smaller bowl, whisk together egg, 2 tbsp vegetable oil, 2 tbsp of the reserved (and cooled) bacon grease) and then the 1 cup beer. Pour wet ingredient mixture over dry ingredient mixture, and begin to stir with wooden spoon. While streaks of flour still remain, stir in bacon pieces, and gently stir until evenly distributed. Scoop 1/3 cup muffin mix into the cavities of the prepared pan (I used an ice cream scoop and it was perfect). You should get about 10 muffins. Bake at 350 degrees for 15 minutes. Remove from oven, brush with remaining bacon drippings, then return to oven for an additional 3 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center of a muffin comes out clean/only a few dry crumbs. Let cool in pan for 5 minutes, then gently remove to a wire rack to cool completely