Bourbon Caramel Chocolate Chip Cookies
Saying “bourbon caramel chocolate chip cookies” is a mouthful, but what a tasty mouthful it is! The flavors of brown sugar bourbon, caramel, and chocolate blend together so beautifully. Luckily, they are as easy to make as they are to devour.
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Alcohol Free Option
While the alcohol will bake out of these delicious chocolate chip cookies, if you want to skip that ingredient all together, that’s totally okay! Just use an equal amount of vanilla and I promise you will still have a delicious cookie.
I used a brown sugar bourbon, but if you can’t get your hands on that specifically, just choose a bourbon that you like. Since I don’t drink much alcohol, I love to buy those little sample sized bottles to use in my baking. It’s cheap and I don’t need to worry about wasting the bourbon.
Bourbon Caramel Chocolate Chip Cookies
These cookies start with my brown butter cookie dough as the base. The brown butter just leans into the flavor of the caramel bits, so it seemed like a no brainer to me. For the add ins, I used a generous amount of semi-sweet chocolate chips and caramel bits.
We would have been totally fine leaving the bourbon caramel chocolate chip cookies at that, but I had to be extra. I stuffed each cookie with a Rolo! Any way to squeeze more chocolate and caramel into a cookie is fine by me.
Top Tips for Drop Cookies
- Use cookie scoops for perfectly portioned cookies.
- Top your drop cookies with any chunky ingredients (like chocolate, nuts, ect.) that are inside the dough.
- Cold dough won’t spread as much in the oven.
- Store cookie dough for up to 3 months in the freezer.
- Bake a test cookie before baking the rest of the batch to determine the best bake time.
Rolo Stuffing
Stuffing each bourbon caramel chocolate chip cookie with a Rolo was a tiny bit tedious, but definitely worth it. I had to unwrap 17 of the chocolate candies, which seemed more annoying than it sounds!
Scoop out your dough, then flatten it out slightly to create a bit of a pocket. Add the Rolo, then squeeze the dough around the candy, pinching it all together so that you can’t see the chocolate.
Related Reading: Funfetti Cookies with a Funfetti Crumble
Baking the Cookies
I almost always freeze my cookie dough balls and bake them from frozen. This has a few benefits. One, it helps the cookies bake into a nice, thick, round cookie. Two, it also means I can keep a batch of cookies in the freezer and bake one, three, or the whole lot whenever I need fresh cookies.
Every oven is a tiny bit different, and everyone has their own preferences for cookies. I suggest baking just one frozen cookie ball to find the exact baking time that works for you and your oven. It may be a few minutes different from my own.
Visual Learners, I’ve Got You Covered
Drop cookies are great bakes for beginner bakers. They are not difficult to make, but it can be a great option for experimenting with new flavors and basically just getting super inventive. Check out the recipe tutorial for these cookies to see exactly how I made them!
I love, love, love, making cookies. If there’s a flavor or technique that you’d like to see me cover in a future video, leave a comment or shoot me a message and I will see what I can do.
Enjoy!
The rich, cozy flavors of caramel and chocolate are the stars of these bourbon caramel chocolate chip cookies. I hope you get a chance to whip up a batch of your own sometime soon! If you do, stop back and leave a comment to let me know what you thought.
Happy Baking!
Bourbon Caramel Chocolate Chip Cookies
Ingredients
- 8 oz unsalted butter
- 10 oz all- purpose flour
- 2 tsp cornstarch
- 1 tsp baking soda
- 1 tsp salt
- 5.5 oz brown sugar
- 1.75 oz sugar
- 1 egg
- 1 tbsp brown sugar bourbon*
- 8 oz chocolate chips divided
- 6 oz caramel bits
- 17 Rolos unwrapped
Instructions
Brown Butter
- Make your brown butter. Place the butter in a saucepan over medium or medium- low heat. Let it melt, stirring occasionally. Continue cooking until the butter becomes a nice caramel color. Remove from the stove. Let the brown butter come to room temperature. You will need 6 oz of brown butter for this recipe. Add or remove butter as necessary.
Bourbon Caramel Chocolate Chip Cookies
- In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, cornstarch, baking soda, and salt and set aside.
- In another bowl, cream together the room temperature brown butter (6oz) and both sugars on a low speed until well combined, about 2 minutes. Scrape down the sides of the bowl as needed.
- Add the egg and bourbon to the butter/ sugar mixture and beat until combined. Add the dry ingredients to the wet and mix until just barely combined. Gently mix in the chocolate chips and caramel bits, reserving extra for topping the dough later, until evenly distributed.
- Use a large cookie scoop to portion the dough. Gently flatten the dough ball a bit and place a Rolo in the center. Wrap the dough around the candy and gently press into a ball again. Place on a tray lined with wax or parchment paper. Repeat with the rest of the dough.
- Top the dough balls with the reserved chocolate chips and a few caramel bits. Freeze for an hour, then transfer the cookie dough balls to an airtight container or a freezer bag. Then freeze for at least 4 hours, but preferably overnight.
- Preheat the oven to 325℉. Line a baking sheet or two with silicone baking mats or parchment paper.
- Place frozen cookie dough balls on the prepared baking sheet two inches apart. Keep the remaining dough balls in the freezer.
- Bake cookies for 21- 23 minutes. Let them cool on the baking sheet for 5- 10 minutes before transferring them to a cooling rack.
Notes
- It's best to use a room temperature egg. If you forget to take it out in advance, place it in a glass and cover in warm water while you prepare the rest of your ingredients.
- You can make the brown butter in advance and store in an airtight container in the fridge. Pull it out about 1- 2 hours before you're ready to make the cookies.
- If you end up with less than 6 oz of brown butter, just add enough unsalted butter to the warm brown butter to make up the difference.
- For an alcohol free recipe, use an equal amount of vanilla instead of the bourbon.
Colleen
Hi there! I’m Colleen, a novice baker with a passion for learning and improving my bakes… and blunders. On Bakes and Blunders, you can find all sorts of tasty recipes that range in difficulty, but most importantly, I’ll try to explain the reason behind important steps. If you know why a recipe works, you can tweak and adapt it to suit your unique tastes, and you’ll be able to reliably produce some very delicious treats. If you love baking and want to expand and grow your skills, or if you are a casual baker and just need some pointers, my blog is right up your alley! Join me on my baking journey and we’ll learn how to make more impressive recipes together.
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