Bourbon and Bacon Chocolate Chip Cookies

Bourbon and Bacon Chocolate Chip Cookies are a bacon lovers dream cookie! Chocolate chip cookies with candied bacon and bourbon are sweet, salty, and absolutely delicious.

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These are not your Grandma’s Chocolate Chip Cookies!  Grandma never put bourbon or candied bacon in her cookies…..but she did teach me to cook using bacon grease!  My grandma pretty much fried everything in bacon grease.  I’m pretty sure she coined the phrase “everything’s better with bacon”.  It’s the secret to my french toast, hashbrowns and oh my word, you should try it with fried apples!!

Recently the Kansas Pork Association contacted me and asked if I’d be willing to make a recipe featuring bacon and tell you all about their “Your Bacon Starts Here” efforts and how you can enter to win bacon for a year!  Like I need an excuse to cook with bacon!? HA! I was all over that and couldn’t say yes fast enough.

Bacon Chocolate Chip Cookies with Bourbon

I have been wanting to try making chocolate chip cookies with a little bacon grease for quite some time, and I figured this was the perfect time to give it a go!  If you’ve never had bacon in your baked goods, I know it sounds really odd, but if you are a fan of sweet and salty, it’s something you must try…..at least once, and why not try it with a good ole chocolate chip cookie? 

My husband and his friends were HUGE fans of these Bacon Bourbon Chocolate Chip Cookie, which is saying a lot!

My husband is super picky about baked goods and doesn’t like for me to mess with something he already loves, like The BEST Chocolate Chip Cookie Recipe.  But when I added candied bacon, bourbon and a little bacon grease to his favorite cookies, he couldn’t argue that it was a winning combination!

My family loves pork, it’s on our dinner table a few times a week. I enjoyed learning a little more about the Kansas Pork Association and getting to know the Pork farmers and their families, who are providing my family with delicious sustenance to set on our table and fill our bellies. If you have time,  watch this video of the Wondra Family Farm in Central Kansas where their sons are involved in the daily care and operation of the farm. They have three generations working the farm, and the kids actually enjoy working side by side with family!

Now how about that Candied Bacon Chocolate Chip Cookies recipe:

(full recipe at the end of this post)

a few cookie notes:

• I always have a jar of bacon grease in my refrigerator.  If you don’t have any, you will need to fry about a half-pound of bacon to get 1/4 of a cup of bacon grease.  Pour it into a glass jar and let it chill to harden in the refrigerator at least an hour or two.
• I wanted to use candied bacon for this recipe, but I’m sure it would be just as good if you simply use cooked bacon.
• if you are afraid that the bacon grease and crumbled bacon will be too much bacon flavor for you, try using just one or the other. I’m sure they will still be delicious with a little more mild bacon flavor
• Since you bake the cookies with the bourbon in them, the alcohol will cook out, making them perfectly fine to serve to children
• the cayenne pepper gives these cookies a tiny “kick” – my girls did not like this flavor, but my husband loved it.  It’s definitely something you could leave out if you’re not as adventurous.

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Bourbon and Bacon Chocolate Chip Cookies

Yield: 36 cookies

Prep Time: 30 minutes

Cook Time: 30 minutes

Total Time: 1 hour

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These Chocolate Chip Cookies are a bacon lovers dream cookie! Chocolate chip cookies with candied bacon and bourbon are sweet, salty, and absolutely delicious.

Ingredients

• 5 slices bacon, raw
• 1/4 cup maple syrup
• 2 cups minus 2 tablespoons (8 1/2 ounces) cake flour
• 1 2/3 cups (8 1/2 ounces) bread flour
• 1 1/4 teaspoons baking soda
• 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1 teaspoons salt
• 1/8 teaspoon cayenne pepper
• 2 sticks (1 cup) unsalted butter
• 1/4 cup bacon grease, chilled
• 1 1/4 cups (10 ounces) light brown sugar
• 1 cup plus 2 tablespoons (8 ounces) granulated sugar
• 2 large eggs
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 2 tablespoons bourbon
• 8 ounces bittersweet chocolate chips

Instructions

For Candied Bacon

1. Preheat oven to bake at 375°F. Line baking sheet with parchment paper.
2. Toss bacon in ¼ cup maple syrup in a medium size bowl, then lay bacon on prepared pan. Bake for 20 minutes.
3. Remove bacon from oven, allow to cool, then crumble candied bacon and set aside.

Cookies

1. Heat oven to 350 degrees
2. Sift flours, baking soda, baking powder,salt and pepper into a bowl. Set aside.
3. Using a mixer fitted with paddle attachment, cream butter, bacon grease and sugars together until very light, about 5 minutes. Add eggs, one at a time, mixing well after each addition. Stir in the vanilla and bourbon. Reduce speed to low, add dry ingredients and mix until just combined, 5 to 10 seconds. Drop chocolate chips and crumbled bacon in and incorporate into dough.
4. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper or a nonstick baking mat. Drop cookie dough by rounded tablespoon onto prepared baking sheets at least 3 inches apart.
5. Bake until golden brown but still soft, 9-11 minutes. Transfer sheet to a wire rack for 10 minutes, then slip cookies onto another rack to cool a bit more. Repeat with remaining dough, or reserve dough, refrigerated, for baking remaining batches the next day. Enjoy with a big glass of milk.

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Disclaimer:  Thank you to Kansas Pork Association for sponsoring this post.  All opinions, views, and love of bacon are all my own!