Kelsey Can–Bourbon Chocolate Chip Cookies

Whether you are from Kentucky or not, there is no better combination than bourbon and chocolate! Bourbon chocolate milkshakes, bourbon chocolate cakes, and now bourbon chocolate chip cookies…you can’t go wrong. I was at Keeneland this past week and I could kick myself for not taking these! These would be perfect for a Derby party though!
I made these cookies a few weeks ago and found two things, you can freeze the dough and they are good or you can bake the cookies immediately are they are good. If you freeze them, they seem to be chewy, but if you bake them as they are they seem to be very light.

Bourbon Chocolate Chip Cookies

Bourbon Chocolate Chip Cookies
Yield 3 dozen small cookies

2 ½ cups of flour
½ teaspoon baking soda
½ teaspoon salt (plus more)
1 stick of butter (softened)
1 cup plus 2 teaspoons granulated sugar
½ cup brown sugar, packed
1 large egg
4-6 tablespoons bourbon
2/3 cup mini semi-sweet chocolate chips

Mix together the flour, baking soda, and salt together. This is simple for me to put in a quart mason jar with a lid and shake. Mix together the two sugars until well combined. Combine the butter with the sugars until light and fluffy, 3 minutes or so. Add in the egg. Slowly add in the bourbon. Once incorporated, add in the flour mixture. Fold in the chocolate chips last.

*You can add in 2/3 cup of toasted chopped walnuts if you wish!

I used a small cookie scoop and portioned out cookies. Bake in a preheated 350⁰F oven for 8-10 minutes. The cookies will not turn a brown color, so don’t over bake. Once cooked, sprinkle top with salt and enjoy!

Kelsey Can–Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies

Happy Thanksgiving! Every fall I come across so many pumpkin recipes. I love everything pumpkin! I have my own board on Pinterest with just pumpkin things. I recently came across a Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookie recipe. We had a Thanksgiving service at church this past Sunday so I made these cookies to try! What could be better than chocolate and pumpkin all in a cookie?! I found the original recipe from Sally’s Baking Addiction.

The first in these fabulous cookies was to cream together the butter and sugar. One of the best cookie recipes I use starts with this same process. 1 stick of butter (softened), 1/4 cup brown sugar, and 1/2 cup white sugar. I usually mix mine with a stand mixer for about 5 minutes. While it is mixing, go on and get the other ingredients measured out and ready to mix in.

After the five minutes is up, mix in a teaspoon or more of vanilla and 1/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons of canned pumpkin puree. Once that is all combined, add in 1 1/2 cups all purpose flour, 1easpoon /4 teaspoon of salt (never bake without salt!), 1/4 teaspoon baking powder, 1/4 tteaspoon baking soda, 1 1/2 teaspoons of cinnamon (this is what the recipe called for, but next time I will probably use 2 teaspoons), and 1 1/2 teaspoons of pumpkin pie spice.

From here, the recipe says to chill for at least 30 minutes or up to 3 days. I chilled mine over night and the next day the dough was so stiff, I couldn’t even use my cookie scoop! If I make these again, I would scoop out the dough and then chill. But, here is someone who has taken regular dough and done the chilling experiment. http://www.melskitchencafe.com/the-great-cookie-experiment-chilling-the-dough-does-it-make-a-difference/ I have never met a cookie I didn’t like, so I’m saying to chill the cookie if you want, or bake them right away. If you love your cookie scoop like I do, scoop first regardless if you chill or don’t chill. If you do chill, I would suggest to roll the dough out on plastic wrap and roll into a log, the dough gets really stiff and if its in a log, you can just cut the cookies off and bake. The dough should be about 1 1/2 tablespoons of dough. You can also make the dough into balls and freeze up to 2 months.

I preheated my oven to 350ºF and baked these cookies for about 12 minutes on a rubber mat (if you don’t have a rubber mat, use parchment paper, sometimes when I just use the baking pan and spray it, the bottoms burn). Every oven is different, so check about 10 minutes after baking. Enjoy!