These Rosemary Bourbon Chocolate Chunk Cookies with Pecans and Smoked Sea Salt are unusual enough to be exciting and familiar enough to be comforting. They are also just plain awesome. For more about this month’s boozy Creative Cookie Exchange keep reading down below! Affiliate links were used to link to items I am discussing.
Guys! I may not have re-invented the wheel, but I am really proud of these cookies! Which I guess sounds kinda crazy. But I really went back and forth about adding the rosemary to these. It sounded good to me, but maybe I would be alone in finding them good kind of thing.
Nope. These were a huge hit. Something about rosemary and dark chocolate works really well, and add in the caramel notes from the bourbon and… wow. The smokiness from the salt kind of complements everything rather than standing out super clearly as its own flavor. John and my dad were the true tests for these–they were the ones that might wrinkle their noses at “weird” flavors–and both loved them.
Yay!
Editing these photos is killing me! Chocolate chip cookies–any variation–are one of my true weaknesses. In the future I should write the post while I still have the cookies around to munch on. Because now I am seriously craving chocolate chip cookies!
Like all chocolate chip cookies, the longer you can let your dough rest the better these will be. The first night they were excellent warm from the oven, but the next morning they were no longer out of this world amazing. Whereas the third day I baked them? Unbelievable.
Some notes about ingredients: for the smoked salt, any smoked salt will do–and in a pinch, just use regular coarse sea salt salt. As I noted above, smoked salt is not one of the strong flavors in these cookies. I used a combination of minced fresh rosemary and rosemary salt (a quick search on Amazon tells me there are a lot available, just not the one I own, and be sure to not choose one with other savory flavors like garlic) in the dough. If the rosemary salt is too tricky to get a hold of, you can sub half a teaspoon of dried rosemary (or 1 teaspoon fresh minced) and 1.5 teaspoons of coarse sea salt.
For the chocolate chunks, I decided it was important to use a really good bittersweet chocolate, in order to properly complement the rosemary. So I pulled out my Scharffen Berger 70% Bittersweet Chunks
- 2 cups (8.5 oz) AP flour
- 2 cups (8.5 oz) white whole wheat flour
- 1¼ t baking soda
- 1½ t baking powder
- 1½ t rosemary salt (see note above)
- 1 1/4 cups (2 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter
- 1 T minced fresh rosemary
- 1¼ cups (10 oz) light brown sugar
- 1 cup plus 2 T (8 oz) granulated sugar
- 2 large eggs
- 1 t vanilla
- 2 T bourbon
- 3 18-oz bags Scharffenberger Bittersweet Chocolate Chunks, see note above
- 1 cup chopped pecans
- Coarse smoked sea salt for sprinkling, see note above
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Whisk together flours, baking soda, baking powder and rosemary salt in a bowl. Set aside.
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Using a mixer fitted with paddle attachment, cream butter, fresh minced rosemary 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. With speed on low, add the dry ingredients and mix until just combined, 5 to 10 seconds. Mix in the chocolate chunks and pecans. Cover the dough with something airtight and refrigerate at least overnight (I bake a tray or so a day, until the dough is gone, thereby ensuring fresh cookies each time).
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When ready to bake, preheat the oven to 350 F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper or a silicone mat.
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Using a cookie dough scoop or an ice cream scoop of medium size, scoop the cookies onto the prepared tray, 6 per sheet. I was aiming for 2-3 tablespoons of dough per cookie. Sprinkle the cookies with smoked sea salt and bake until golden brown but still a little soft, about 13-15 minutes. Transfer the baking sheet to a wire rack for 10 minutes, then remove the cookies individually to a cooling rack.
The theme this month is Drunken Cookies! Cookies made with booze and/or inspired by booze, we have them all! If you are a blogger and want to join in the fun, contact me at thespicedlife AT gmail DOT com and I will get you added to our Facebook group, where we discuss our cookies and share links.
You can also just use us as a great resource for cookie recipes–be sure to check out our Pinterest Board and our monthly posts (you can find all of them here at The Spiced Life). You will be able to find them the first Tuesday after the 15th of each month! Also, if you are looking for inspiration to get in the kitchen and start baking, check out what all of the hosting bloggers have made:
- Rosemary Bourbon Chocolate Chunk Cookies with Smoked Sea Salt from The Spiced Life
- Tipsy Chocolate Cherry Cookies from Our Good Life
- Cherry Blossom Tea Cookies from NinjaBaker
- Cinnamon Raisin Blondies from What Smells So Good?
- Chocolate Macarons with Bourbon Praline Buttercream from Sweet Cinnamon & Honey
- Amaretto Tricolor Cookies from Karen’s Kitchen Stories
- Whiskey Raisin Oatmeal Bars from Food Lust People Love
- Frosted Orange Cookies from Magnolia Days
- Coffee and Irish Cream Sandwich Cookies from Spiceroots
- Chocolate Chip Guinness Cookies from Upstate Ramblings
- Amaretti Biscuits from A Baker’s House
- Chocolate Rum Balls from Noshing With The Nolands
- White Chocolate Chip & Frangelico Hazelnut Cookies from Made With Love
- Nutella Baileys Cookies from Basic N Delicious
Wow. These look so good. 🙂 I love smoked sea salt!!
the combination of all of these flavors is so intriguing! 🙂
Wow Laura, that is one interesting combo of flavors in those cookies. I’ve never thought to combine rosemary and chocolate before. I guess the only way to find out is to bake a batch and see…
I’m not sure that I would have thought to pair all of these together, but WOW. LOVE the combo.
Love that you put rosemary in cookies! They look so good!
I love every element of these, Laura, and I am not surprised at all that they were a hit. Can’t wait to try them!
Well of course these would be a hit–bourbon and sea salt! What is not to love?
Pure culinary genius! I can taste those meltingly good flavors now – dang I need some of these for breakfast!
I want to make these for my garden club! When my rosemary bounces back from winter, this is going to be the first thing I try! Thank you!
I am intrigued with these cookies and the rosemary salt, I would love to try them!!
YOu may not have re-invented the wheel but you surely explored a new avenue with the flavors in this cookie. They look wonderful! So glad your taste-testers approved.
Congratulations and thank you, Laura. Good to know that rosemary and dark chocolate are ideal partners. Truly appreciate the tip, too, that chocolate chip cookie dough bakes up the best on day 3 =)
I would say you have reinvented the wheel.. chocolate, rosemary and smoked sea salt.. I would never have thought to use all together in a cookie. Great idea and Love the chocolate you used. Scharffen Berger is one of my fav chocolates.
Different and delicious.
Wow, these just might be the most interesting cookies I’ve ever seen! I NEED to make them! Yum….xo Nic
You are killing me! These sound sooooo amazing!!! How creative Laura!! Stumbled!
Wow- Can we say flavour explosion? These cookies have bits and pieces of everything!
Drunken cookies!!! What a great theme!! I would love if you link this up to Tipsy Tuesday at Grey is the New Black!
This is a great combination of flavors. Chocolate Chip cookies are one of my weaknesses too, and in fact my husband complains because I rarely make them. But that is because if I make them I eat half of them!
I really sound the sound of you cookies, they look so good also.
Wow! Rosemary, bourbon, chocolate, and smoked salt? Such fun and unique flavors!! Love it.
How decadent! Love it
Ooh my, these sound amazing!! I love your creativeness with all of those flavours, wonderful!
These cookies look fantastic! I am so happy that you chose to submit to YG – I hope you will continue to submit and take a look at the new badge/button we have for bloggers to post on their sidebars! Kelli from YG
Holy Cow! I made these, had a couple at home and brought the rest to work today after baking them last night. Not one single person disliked them- in fact, everyone loved the combination of flavors, the rosemary and the salt. Only thing I would say is the bourbon really added a bit of scent to the rosemary-chocolate but I couldnt taste it. I dont care though because these are a new favorite!! I’ll be making them a lot! Thanks for the wonderful recipe!
Yay!!!! I love comments like these. And I would agree, the bourbon is more of a scent than a true flavor.
Hi! How many cookies does this yield? Would it be successful to omit the bourbon? Thank you.
Sorry for the delay in replying–someone is trying to hack into my site and I got locked out! Anyway, regarding the bourbon, I think the warmth of the bourbon is a nice counterpoint to the bracing rosemary. If you leave it out, the rosemary will probably just be a little more prominent. As to number of cookies, that is a question I am always hesitant to answer because so much depends on what size cookies you like to make. This recipe is about double the standard Tollhouse recipe if that helps. Makes about 20 giant bakery cookies, but I never make mine that big, although I do prefer them to have some heft. Maybe 40 cookies?