Brown Sugar & Bacon Bourbon Cookies
Get ready to elevate your cookie game with our unbeatable bacon bourbon cookies recipe! These cookies are not your average sweet treats - they're flavor packed, with brown sugar, bourbon, and a sprinkling of salty bacon.
Whether you're a bourbon enthusiast or just looking to add a dash of festivity to your cookie jar, these bourbon cookies are the ultimate choice. So whip up a batch of these brown sugar and bacon bourbon cookies, and let the good times roll - because life's too short for ordinary cookies!
Are these cookies chewy, crunchy, or soft?
My personal favorite cookies are chewy, but there are some exceptions. These bacon bourbon cookies are one of them-they are tender, fluffy, soft batch cookies. They're kind of the texture of those soft-batch Lofthouse cookies with the bright-colored frosting you get in the bakery section at your grocery store. Fluffy and tender, with a bit of chew. Even I, quite possibly the biggest fan of ooey gooey chewy cookies ever (shoutout soft lemon cookies and chocolate ball cookies), love these cookies.
Bacon in Christmas cookies?
Putting bacon into sweet things has become quite trendy, and you'll find a number of bacon cookie recipes out there (I even saw one that calls for using ½ cup of bacon grease in the cookie-that seems a little too bacon-y for me, but what do I know?). Bacon desserts have a wonderful salty-sweet flavor profile.
In these bacon bourbon cookies, there is just enough of the bacon sprinkled on top to add a really pleasant salty, rich flavor to help balance out the mega-sweet cookie. If there are vegetarians in the crowd, you could of course leave off the bacon on a few of the cookies. Because I reduced the salt content in the dough to account for the salty bacon, you might want to sprinkle the vegetarian versions with a bit of flaky sea salt to help balance out the sweetness.
What kind of bourbon should I use?
It's interesting because I actually don't drink much bourbon, but I do love cooking with it. It adds such a rich flavor to foods. If you've never cooked with bourbon before, I wouldn't say the end result tastes boozy (well, unless you add a lot). It's more of a caramelly warm taste.
Now, of course, for drinking and mixing, you want to find a good quality bourbon you love and stick with it, but for baking? Dude. Go with the bottom shelf stuff. Maybe my palette just isn't refined enough, but I honestly can't tell a difference between the baked goods I make with our (not very cheap) bottle of good bourbon and the stuff I make with our plastic bottle from Larry's Bourbon Factory 'n' Stuff. Save your good stuff for sipping. Keep a small bottle of the not-so-good stuff in a cabinet somewhere for baking and bourbon punch.
Why am I rolling the cookies in brown sugar?
I rolled each of these cookies in brown sugar in addition to the brown sugar inside. It adds a really beautiful sparkle to the outside of the cookie, and some of the sugar also caramelizes and gets nice and crunchy right around the edge of the cookie. So when you first take a bite, you get the nice crunch of cooked bacon and caramelized sugar, and then inside you get chewy, soft, bourbon-tastic cookie.
Enjoy!
📖 Recipe
Bourbon Bacon Brown Sugar Cookies
Ingredients
- 2 sticks unsalted butter softened
- ¼ cup granulated sugar
- 1 ¼ cup brown sugar plus more for rolling
- 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
- 2 large eggs
- ¼ cup bourbon
- 2 ½ cups all-purpose flour
- ¼ teaspoon baking powder
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- 6 slices bacon cooked and crumbled
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350°F. In the bowl of a mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cream together the butter, granulated sugar, and brown sugar until light and fluffy-scraping the sides as necessary. Add in the vanilla, eggs, and bourbon, and mix until well-combined.
- In a separate mixing bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Add the flour mixture to the wet ingredients in three separate additions, mixing well after each addition. Chill the dough for at least 30 minutes.
- Roll the cookie dough into 1½-inch balls, and then roll into brown sugar-knocking off excess. Place dough onto an ungreased sheet pan and bake for 10-12 minutes, or until golden brown.
- Remove from oven, and press in a small amount of bacon on top of each cookie. Let cool for 5 minutes on the baking sheet, then transfer to a cooling rack to cool completely.
Nutrition
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