These Bourbon Bacon Chocolate Chunk Cookies are a great cookie recipe incorporating bacon, bourbon and chocolate. It’s unique and delicious!
Whisky for the cookies!
One of the fun things about the house we bought in Oregon is the reverse floor plan. The living area and kitchen are upstairs, so we have an amazing view of the trees around us and Mt. Bachelor in the distance. I took one look at it and said, “I want this house!” We really love to hang out on the huge wrap-around deck with the beautiful views, so it was a big, big draw. We’ve been fixing it up all summer, and we’ve been adding our special personal touches. We had friends over recently, and one of our friends requested a glass of Maker’s Mark Whisky. We’re not typically whisky drinkers in our house, so we had to tell him we didn’t have any. The very next day, I (coincidentally) received an email from the folks at Maker’s Mark, sharing this Bourbon Bacon Chocolate Chunk Cookies recipe from their recipe collection.
Well, I had a little back-and-forth chat with them, and they ended up sending me a bottle to sample. We were happy to add it to our bar so future guests can enjoy Maker’s Mark. And I was thrilled to use it to make these Bourbon Bacon Chocolate Chunk Cookies! I adapted the recipe slightly, but I’m sure the result was just the same.
Bacon for the cookies:
Thick-cut bacon is what you’ll use for these cookies. Cooking the bacon will render quite a bit of bacon fat in the pan. And you’ll be using that bacon fat in the recipe!
My husband says, “They’re a total score!” You can definitely taste the bacon in there since you use some of the bacon fat as part of the fat in the recipe.
Can you use another kind of whisky for these cookies?
YES. Use any whisky brand that you enjoy. Any whisky will do.
The alcohol pretty much burns out in the baking process. Everyone can eat them! Thanks to Maker’s Mark for the sample whisky. We really enjoyed these Bourbon Bacon Chocolate Chunk Cookies! It was my first time making bacon cookies, and you know what?? Bacon cookies are a very good thing indeed!
Here are a few more recipes using whisky that you might like to try:
- Irish Bread Pudding with Caramel Whiskey Sauce
- Pumpkin Peanut Butter Pie
- Homemade Irish Cream Liqueur
- Irish Whiskey Brownies
- Whiskey Glazed Little Smokies
- Apple Cider Sangria
- Chocolate Whiskey Cake
- Irish Apple Crisp
Bourbon Bacon Chocolate Chunk Cookies
Ingredients
- 12 ounces center-cut thick bacon, ½-inch diced
- 2½ cups all purpose flour
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1/4 teaspoon baking powder
- 1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, at room temperature
- 1/2 cup reserved bacon fat, chilled (see notes below if you don't have enough)
- 3/4 cup granulated white sugar
- 3/4 cup packed brown sugar
- 3 tablespoons bourbon
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 2 large eggs
- 8 ounces dark chocolate, chopped
Instructions
- In a large skillet, cook the bacon until the bacon pieces are golden brown and crisp. Remove the bacon from the skillet and onto a plate lined with paper towels to drain. Reserve the bacon fat in the pan. You'll need 1/2 cup of the bacon fat- spoon it into a 1/2 cup measuring cup and refrigerate it until it has solidified. If you do not have enough bacon fat, add enough shortening to fill the 1/2 cup.
- Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F. In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, baking soda, salt and baking powder. In a separate large bowl, use an electric mixer to combine the butter, bacon fat, sugars, bourbon and vanilla. Mix in the eggs, one at a time, until well combined. Beat in the flour mixture. Then stir in the bacon and chocolate (hint: if you want your cookies to look really pretty, save a few bacon and chocolate pieces to add to the top of each cookie dough blob before baking). Drop by rounded tablespoonfuls onto parchment or silpat-lined baking sheets- about 2 inches apart.
- Bake 9 to 11 minutes, or until the cookies are lightly browned. Let stand on the cookie sheets for about 5 minutes, then remove the cookies to a cooling rack to cool completely.
- Store cookies in an airtight container for up to 5 days, or store in a covered container or zip bag in the freezer for up to 6 weeks.
Notes
- *NOTE: If you do not have enough bacon fat, use butter or shortening to fill what's missing.
- *Don't try to use turkey bacon for this recipe- ick.
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
Do I have to use the whisky? Can I just leave it out? Can’t to try this recipe.
Probably!
Can this be made with almond flour?
I haven’t tried that.
I WILL BE MAKING THESE TOMORROW!
Bourbon!!
Bacon!! Chocolate!!!
Oh heck yeah!!!!!
This recipe sounds amazing & I really am going to have to try this recipe! My husband and I took a weekend and had a tour of the Maker’s Mark distillery & since I had my name on a barrel and it was ready, we were able to attend a tasting and dip our own bottle in the trademark red wax as well. Wish I could share that picture with you! The grounds were so beautiful. It was very much worth the trip. I highly recommend it!
My family loved these cookies, the only change I made was refrigerating the dough to firm it up. These are a new fave in my house, thanks for posting!
I made these and the were amazing. My boyfriend said they were the best cookies he has ever had. My 20 yr old boys asked for more. So here I am making them again 3 days later. I used a tablespoon of Bulleit Bourbon, a tablespoon of Bulleit 10yr and a tablespoon of Bulleit Barrel Strength. Make sure the bacon is cooked nice and crispy. I also used pink hymalayan sea salt.
As someone who has taught culinary arts and catered desserts, I discerned some flaws in this recipe from the beginning. It makes a very sloppy consistency dough – causing the cookie to spread out too thin.
First – frying lean bacon does not produce 1/2 cup fat. My experience was closer to 1/4 C, and I fried an entire pound. One must add some shortening for substance to make up the difference. Adding 3 T of liquid (the bourbon) also thins the dough. You cannot do that without compensating for the additional liquid – by removing an egg, or adding more flour. I chose to add 1/3 C. Flour to get the dough to resemble a classic choc chip cookie dough. Baking is science. You cannot simply start adding things that sound good without balancing their effects.
This recipe comes directly from Makers Mark… I had good success with it!
I’ve made this recipe so many times that my friends have named them my “famous cookies” and I get asked to make them every potluck. I’ve never had issues with the recipe calls for “thick cut bacon” not sure where you got “lean bacon” I would think a “teacher of culinary arts” could read a recipe… But what do I know I’m only a hobby baker/chef and I’ve never messed up this recipe ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
I must admit to being a bit unenthused by the cookies this recipe produced. Don’t get me wrong, they weren’t bad. How could they be? But they were bland and wholly unimpressive to me, which is almost a crime considering how many show-stopping ingredients they contain. The flavor profile is very flat—by which I mean that all the flavors work so well together and are so similar in nature that they sort of blend together into a very gray and nondescript experience. Nothing about them stands out, though I kept waiting for a wow from my tastebuds.
So, I made them again, but added a liberal measure of pecans. I also chilled the dough while I took a phone call, which unintentionally made them phenomenal. It changed the texture from denser to fluffier. All this being said, this is a good blank canvas cookie. I intend to try adding either cinnamon or orange zest to the next batch. ??
Interesting!
Ha Ha, store for 5 days in an airtight container. Like that is going to happen. They were lucky to last long enough to cool before the devouring began.
Am I correct I’m assuming the alcohol cooks off? I’m pregnant but man do these sound good!
I don’t think any teeny tiny amount of alcohol left in the cookies would make any difference for someone who is pregnant. I think science tells us that most of the alcohol disappears in the cooking process, but some people might argue that!
I sopped drinking and was told that not all the alcohol bakes off in a cooking process ( regardless of the science. That came from my doctor. I trust her more than any cooking website. Always ask your doctor on such things is the best advice I can think of rather than someone saying and I quote , ” I don’t think any teeny tine amount of alcohol left in the cookies would make any difference for someone who is pregnant.” That means that they don’t know and should not listen to what they are telling you.
Allison, if you’re pregnant and concerned about the bourbon, I’d take it out. I was thinking of replacing it with peanut butter, or hazelnut or almond butter and my guess is it will be delicious 😋. Congratulations and all the best!
Alcohol takes three hours to bake out of anything. But this recipe yields 3 dozen and has 3 tablespoons of alcohol. That’s 1 tablespoon in a dozen cookies. I’m a big advocate of NO alcohol while pregnant but per cookie it simply wouldn’t have enough alcohol to cause any kind of FAS defect. My 11 yr old loves these cookies I’ve never witnessed her getting drunk off a couple cookies and she has zero tolerance.