Bready or Not Original: Chewy Honey Chocolate Chip Cookies
Bready or Not is back with an original recipe for Chewy Honey Chocolate Chip Cookies!
This recipe arose from my need to create a good, basic chocolate chip cookie that could last for weeks to be shipped cross-country. I looked to my staple Chewy Honey cookies for inspiration, and started tweaking.
On my first try, the cookies were good but a tad bland. Therefore, I upped the vanilla extract and also added espresso powder. Espresso powder is a secret weapon for anyone who bakes with chocolate, as it deepens the inherent flavor without making it taste like coffee.
This second version worked in every way. Not only did it taste delicious, but it was perfect to pack and ship, too.
Mind you, I wouldn’t do that right now because I live near Phoenix. In June, this isn’t a chocolate-friendly place outside of air conditioning!
Try my other original Chewy Honey cookie recipes! If you’ve met me at a con, I’ve likely offered you the Maple or Snickerdoodle Cookies.
Chewy Honey Maple Cookies
Chewy Honey Snickerdoodles
Chewy Honey Lemon Cookies
Bready or Not Original: Chewy Honey Chocolate Chip Cookies
Ingredients
- 3/4 cup unsalted butter softened
- 1/2 cup light brown sugar packed
- 1/2 cup white sugar
- 2 Tb honey
- 1 large egg room temperature
- 1 Tablespoon vanilla extract
- 1 cup bread flour
- 1 cup all-purpose flour
- 2 teaspoons cornstarch
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1 teaspoon espresso powder
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1 cup chocolate chips add a variety!
Instructions
- In a large bowl, beat the butter until smooth. Add the sugar and honey and beat until creamy and fluffy, about 3 minutes. Scrape down the sides of the bowl and then mix in the egg and vanilla extract.
- In a separate bowl, combine the dry ingredients: bread flour, all-purpose flour, cornstarch, baking soda, espresso powder, and salt. Sift together.
- Slowly stir together the wet ingredients and flour mix until just combined. Sprinkle in the chocolate chips. Wrap the dough in plastic wrap and stash in the fridge for several hours or days; dough can also be frozen at this stage.
- When ready to bake, preheat the oven at 350-degrees. Use greased stoneware, parchment paper, or silpat mats. The cookie dough, even straight from the fridge, has a soft Play-Doh-like consistency, and will spread when it bakes; keep this in mind when spacing cookie dough.
- Teaspoon-sized cookies need to bake 9 to 12 minutes; Tablespoon-sized take 11 to 13 minutes. Let set on cookie sheets for 10 to 15 minutes before moving to a rack to cool completely.
- Stored cookies will keep in a sealed container, between waxed paper or parchment layers, for weeks. They are excellent for travel or shipping.
- OM NOM NOM!
Bready or Not Original: Bacon Chocolate Chip Cookie Bars
These soft, chewy blondies are savory, sweet, and amazing–and my original creation.
The year 2018 was awful in a lot of ways, but it offered one bonus: frequent sales on bacon at my regular grocery stores around Phoenix. I developed quite a strategic stockpile.
I then realized, hey, I should try baking bacon into more sweets. After all, my bacon fat chocolate chip cookies are among my most popular recipes.
I didn’t have a lot of free time, though. I wanted something to bake up fast, without a lot of fuss. Therefore, cookies were out. I wanted bars.
To my surprise, I couldn’t find an existing recipe that appealed to me. I decided that if I wanted soft, chewy bacon and chocolate chip bars, I needed to develop my own recipe.
That’s exactly what I did.
This is a recipe that utilizes sweet and savory together, and it’s a must-bake for any bacon lovers.
Bready or Not Original: Bacon Chocolate Chip Cookie Bars
Ingredients
- 14 Tablespoons unsalted butter softened
- 2 Tablespoons bacon fat
- 1 cup light brown sugar packed
- 3/4 cup white sugar
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- 2 eggs room temperature
- 3 cups all-purpose flour
- 3/4 teaspoon salt
- 3/4 teaspoon baking soda
- 1 1/4 cup milk chocolate chips divided
- 4 slices thick-cut cooked bacon chopped
Instructions
- Preheat oven at 350-degrees. Line a 13x9 pan with foil and grease with butter or nonstick spray.
- Cream together the butter and bacon fat. Mix in the sugars until pale and fluffy, then add the vanilla and eggs.
- In a separate bowl, sift together the flour, salt, and baking soda. Gradually mix the dry ingredients into the wet, until just combined. Fold in 1 cup of the chocolate chips along with the chopped bacon.
- Press dough into prepared pan. Sprinkle the remaining chocolate chips over the top.
- Bake for 22 to 25 minutes, until the middle passes the toothpick test. Cool until room temperature. Use foil to lift contents onto cutting board for easy slicing. Keep stored in sealed containers at room temperature or in the fridge.
- OM NOM NOM!
Bready or Not: Peppermint Chocolate Chip Cookie Sticks
Imagine chocolate chip-flecked shortbread sticks adorned with a thin sheen of frosting with dazzling gems of peppermint.
If you love peppermint and chocolate, these cookie sticks will bring you bliss. But do heed a rather important warning.
If the peppermint bits sit in the frosting for more than a day or so, they’ll actually melt. Seriously. It’s some kind of chemical reaction. Puddles of red goop everywhere.
But here’s the thing: the sticks still taste fine if that happens! They just look like they stared at the Arc of the Covenant.
So make a big ol’ jelly roll pan of these, and hold off on adding the peppermints adornments until soon before serving. Or put them on, and use it as a kind of science experiment.
A very delicious experiment. Did I mention these were like shortbread sticks loaded with chocolate chips and slathered with frosting? Oh yeah. These are good.
Modified from Crazy for Crust at Challenge Dairy.
Bready or Not: Peppermint Chocolate Chip Cookie Sticks
Ingredients
Cookie Sticks
- 3/4 cup unsalted butter
- 3/4 cup white sugar
- 1 large egg room temperature
- 1 Tablespoon vanilla extract
- 1/4 teaspoon peppermint extract
- 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/2 teaspoon cream of tartar
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 2 cups all-purpose flour
- 1 cup mini chocolate chips
Frosting:
- 1/4 cup unsalted butter softened
- 2 cups confectioners' sugar sifted
- 1 Tablespoon vanilla extract
- 3 - 4 Tablespoons milk or cream or half & half
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 1/3 cup candy canes crushed; or peppermints
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350-degrees. Line a jelly roll pan (10x15-inches) with foil and apply nonstick cooking spray all over the surface.
- Cream together the butter and sugar until fluffy. Mix in egg and both extracts, followed by the baking soda, cream of tartar, and salt. Add flour until just incorporated, then the chocolate chips.
- Use your hands to press the dough evenly into the prepared pan. Bake for 15-18 minutes, until it's just starting to turn golden brown at the edges. Cool completely before frosting.
- For the frosting, cream butter until smooth. Slowly mix in powdered sugar until it starts to become crumbly, then add the salt and vanilla extract. Stir in 2 tablespoons of milk, then add more until it is spreadable consistency.
- Use the foil to lift the cookie slab onto a cutting board. Use an uneven spatula to frost the full surface. Let the frosting set for a short while. Slice cookies into sticks.
- DO NOT sprinkle crushed peppermints on until soon before serving--the candies will actually dissolve into the frosting after a day or so, which looks bad though they still taste fine.
- OM NOM NOM!
Bready or Not: Peppermint Chocolate Chip Cookie Sticks
Ingredients
Cookie Sticks
- 3/4 cup unsalted butter
- 3/4 cup white sugar
- 1 large egg room temperature
- 1 Tablespoon vanilla extract
- 1/4 teaspoon peppermint extract
- 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/2 teaspoon cream of tartar
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 2 cups all-purpose flour
- 1 cup mini chocolate chips
Frosting:
- 1/4 cup unsalted butter softened
- 2 cups confectioners' sugar sifted
- 1 Tablespoon vanilla extract
- 3 - 4 Tablespoons milk or cream or half & half
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 1/3 cup candy canes crushed; or peppermints
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350-degrees. Line a jelly roll pan (10x15-inches) with foil and apply nonstick cooking spray all over the surface.
- Cream together the butter and sugar until fluffy. Mix in egg and both extracts, followed by the baking soda, cream of tartar, and salt. Add flour until just incorporated, then the chocolate chips.
- Use your hands to press the dough evenly into the prepared pan. Bake for 15-18 minutes, until it's just starting to turn golden brown at the edges. Cool completely before frosting.
- For the frosting, cream butter until smooth. Slowly mix in powdered sugar until it starts to become crumbly, then add the salt and vanilla extract. Stir in 2 tablespoons of milk, then add more until it is spreadable consistency.
- Use the foil to lift the cookie slab onto a cutting board. Use an uneven spatula to frost the full surface. Let the frosting set for a short while. Slice cookies into sticks.
- DO NOT sprinkle crushed peppermints on until soon before serving--the candies will actually dissolve into the frosting after a day or so, which looks bad though they still taste fine.
- OM NOM NOM!
Bready or Not: Caramel Pretzel Chocolate Chip Cookies
If you like some saltiness with your sweet, oh, do I have the cookies for you: Caramel Pretzel Chocolate Chip Cookies.
As you might imagine, my husband’s co-workers get to taste a wide variety of cookies from me. But these, several declared, ‘were the best cookies they’d ever placed in their mouths.’
I consider that pretty high praise.
What makes these cookies different is the combination of flavors and textures. The pretzels add a lot here–bits of crunchiness and saltiness that is lovely cuddled with chocolate and caramel.
You can use whatever candy bars you want in this. I used Hundred Grands, but you can go for anything with chocolate and caramel, like Twix. Or you can use more chocolate chips and caramel bits.
You could play with the chocolate, too, and use whatever kind you want: milk, semi, dark. Or use a combo.
Whatever combination you choose, I hope you’ll consider these among the best cookies you’ve put in your mouth, too.
Modified from Two Peas and Their Pod.
Bready or Not: Caramel Pretzel Chocolate Chip Cookies
Ingredients
- 1 cup pretzels chopped
- 1 cup caramel-chocolate candy bars chopped, about 6 ounces
- 3 cups all-purpose flour
- 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1 teaspoon sea salt
- 1 cup unsalted butter 2 cubes, room temperature
- 1/2 cup white sugar
- 1 1/2 cups brown sugar packed
- 2 large eggs room temperature
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- 1 cup chocolate chips
- extra sea salt or pretzel salt to sprinkle on top
Instructions
- Prepare your add-ins. Use a food processor (or chop by hand) the pretzels and candy bars. Set aside.
- In a medium bowl, sift together the dry ingredients: flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Set aside.
- Preheat oven at 350-degrees. Prepare a cookie sheet by greasing well or lining with parchment. (Remember, melted caramel can get sticky.)
- In a large bowl, cream together the butter and both sugars until light and fluffy. Add the eggs and vanilla extract. Gradually add in the dry ingredients. By hand, stir in the chocolate chips, pretzels, and candy bars.
- Use a tablespoon to dole out dough balls onto cookie sheet, taking care to space them out; try to tuck visible caramel inside the dough to prevent too much oozing. Sprinkle some salt on top of the cookies.
- Bake for 10 to 12 minutes. Let cookies set on sheet for about 10 minutes before moving to a rack to finish cooling.
- Store cookies in a sealed container between layers of waxed paper or parchment. Keeps well for up to 5 days.
- OM NOM NOM!
Bready or Not: Bacon Fat Chocolate Chip Cookies
As you might have noticed, I am gradually reposting all of my Holy Taco Church recipes here on Bready or Not. I knew I needed to move this cookie recipe forward in the queue when I was emailed by a woman who was dismayed the HTC website was gone and she needed this recipe again.
She described them as by far the best chocolate chip cookies she had ever made. There’s just something magical about the combination of bacon and chocolate. I’ve worked that alchemy in some other recipes like chocolate-covered bacon toffee (aka BACON CRACK).
Here, the combo plays well together in cookie form. The addition of the bacon fat infuses dough with savory flavor. It’s amazing that the single tablespoon of fat makes such a huge difference.
These are not cakey, soft cookies. They are crisp and chewy–more like the old Fanny Farmer recipe cookies my mom used to make me when I was a kid. Except with added bacon.
Try this out. Maybe you’ll join the club that thinks these are the chocolate chip cookies of all time!
Modified from the recipe at Something Swanky and originally posted at the Holy Taco Church.
Bready or Not: Bacon Fat Chocolate Chip Cookies
Ingredients
- 1 cup unsalted butter room temperature
- 1 Tb bacon fat solidified
- 1 cup brown sugar packed
- 1/2 cup white sugar
- 2 eggs room temperature
- 1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
- 2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
- 1 tsp sea salt
- 1/2 tsp baking soda
- 2 cups milk chocolate chips or semi-sweet
- 1/2 cup bacon cooked and chopped, about 4 thick strips
- additional sea salt for tops
Instructions
- Beat together the butter, bacon fat, brown sugar, and white sugar until creamy. Add the eggs one at a time, then the vanilla.
- Add the flour, salt, and baking soda to form the dough. Gradually mix in the chocolate chips and then the bacon.
- Chill the dough for a minimum or two hours, covered with plastic wrap, up to a few days.
- Preheat oven to 375-degrees. Use a teaspoon scoop to dole out dough onto a pan and sprinkle a little extra sea salt over the tops to add some savory oomph. Bake for 10-12 minutes; let cool on cookie sheet for a few minutes, then transition to a rack.
- Recipe will make 55-60 teaspoon-size cookies.
- OM NOM NOM!
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