A Splash Of Bourbon Will Take Your Favorite Cookies To The Next Level

Before you whip up your next batch of cookies, there's one ingredient you should be sure to reach for to provide a burst of warm, sweet, caramelized flavor — a taste so good that it can help you put down the vanilla extract (since your baked goods deserve better). We're talking about bourbon, a delicious spirit that already has a place in delectable sweets like brownies, chocolate and caramel sauces, and Kentucky Bourbon butter cake. 

Just a splash of your favorite bourbon will elevate your cookies without making them taste overly boozy. Some common tasting notes for bourbon include smoke, nuts, vanilla, and spice, and imparting these flavors to your cookies will add a rich depth and complex layers to the desserts. Part of the alcohol content will dissipate in the oven, so you'll still be able to appreciate the warm, caramel notes of the liquor without any harsh bite.

Since bourbon plays so well with common cookie ingredients like butter, brown sugar, chocolate, nuts, and more, it will improve a wide range of your favorite recipes, such as ginger snaps, chewy molasses cookies, chocolate chip cookies, shortbread, or even some simple sugar cookies that can use a little more interest.

Ready to incorporate bourbon into your next batch of cookies? It's a relatively straightforward process. Take our double miso chocolate chip cookies recipe, for example. The first step is to beat together butter, vanilla extract, and sugar until well combined. Swap out the vanilla extract with about a tablespoon of bourbon. A good rule of time is to use about twice as much bourbon as you would use vanilla extract. Then proceed with the rest of the instructions to make the delicious cookies. Once the cookies are out of the oven, we like to brush the tops with a little more bourbon, to give it a boozy glaze. 

So the next time you're making other cookies or brownies, you can simply swap vanilla extract with bourbon and incorporate the bourbon into the wet ingredients during the baking prep process. Of course, you're welcome to keep the vanilla extract as well. Now, if you're wondering what type of bourbon to use to bake cookies, Tasting Table has uncovered the top 10 bourbons to use when baking. It's good to match bourbon's predominant tasting notes to the specific type of cookie you're baking. For example, if you're making cookies that are warm with a lot of spice, choose a more spice-forward bourbon. If you wish to have more pronounced bourbon flavors in your cookies, choose a stronger, high-proof bourbon, guaranteed to flavor-bomb your sweet treats.