BOURBON BACON BUTTER COOKIES

BOURBON BACON BUTTER COOKIES image

Yield 4-6 dozen

Number Of Ingredients 10

3 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 cups unsalted butter, softened
1 cup sugar (can be reduced to 2/3 cup for less sweet cookies)
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 teaspoon kentucky strait bourbon
1 large egg, lightly beaten
1/4 lb bacon, cooked and broken into small bits
1/2 lb fine dark chocolate

Steps:

Preheat oven to 350°F. Sift together flour, baking powder, and salt. Beat together butter, sugar, vanilla extract, and bourbon in a large bowl with a wooden spoon or an electric mixer at moderately high speed until pale and fluffy, about 3 minutes. Add egg and beat well. Add flour mixture and mix at low speed until just combined. Quarter dough and roll 1 piece 1/3 to 1/2 inch thick. Using a cookie cutter, carefully cut and place cookies on ungreased baking sheets, spacing them no more than 1 inch apart. Form more cookies with remaining dough in the same manner. If you do not have a cookie cutter you can form dough into 1 1/2-inch balls, then flatten to 1/3 to 1/2 inch thick. Finally, sprinkle bacon bits over the cookies and press them lightly to ensure that the bacon pieces stick. Bake cookies in batches in middle of oven until edges are golden, 10 to 15 minutes, then transfer to racks to cool. Melt chocolate in a double-boiler over low heat. With a fork, lower cooled cookies into chocolate so that the bottom is covered and then transfer to wax paper lined cookie sheets. Refrigerate until chocolate hardens, store in an airtight container.