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Tessa’s Recipe Rundown
Taste: Gooey chocolate marbled throughout a nutty, oaty cookie with the perfect amount of bourbon flavor – and the sprinkling of flaky sea salt is the perfect finish.
Texture: Soft, moist, and CHEWY!
Ease: Super simple – you don’t even need a mixer for this recipe.
Why You’ll Love This Recipe: It’s just so flavorful, and perfect for both the holidays as well as Father’s Day!
Infused with rich bourbon caramel notes, chewy oats, nutty rye flour, chocolate decadence, and flaky sea salt, these Bourbon Rye Oatmeal Chocolate Chunk Cookies are the most flavorful, heavenly, salty-sweet bites of indulgence you’ll ever taste.
These cookies are a new favorite in my house. And with my team. And all our family and friends. Yes, they’re truly that amazing!
My team and I experimented with this cookie recipe about 10 times before nailing the texture and flavor – and our friends and family didn’t mind one bit. Joe even proclaimed these as his new favorite cookie! He’s asked me to make these countless times since.
These bourbon cookies are great for any holiday party or potluck – and they’re the perfect unique Christmas cookie idea! Be sure to check out all my tips just below for the most amazing cookies ever.
This might be my favorite cookie now. The flavor is off the charts and the amount of bourbon is just right to not be overpowering. This recipe is a keeper for sure.
Key Recipe Ingredients
Bourbon: I tested these with Maker’s Mark bourbon. If you use a cheaper brand, keep in mind that your cookies may have a more subtle bourbon flavor once baked. Feel free to experiment with a different dark liquor if need (rum, rye, or a different whiskey should work just fine).
- If you need to skip the alcohol entirely, I recommend instead trying my Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookie recipe here.
Flours: A combination of all-purpose flour and dark rye flour is crucial for the flavor and texture of these cookies. Using only all-purpose flour resulted in less flavorful & chewy cookies that dried out faster. If you can’t find dark rye flour, regular rye flour will work, too – but you can grab dark rye flour online here.
If you cannot use rye flour: Use a total of 2 cups (249 grams) all-purpose flour, and be sure to chill the cookie dough for 24 hours before baking. Skipping this chill period will result in thinner cookies with much less flavor.
Oats: Use old-fashioned rolled oats, not quick oats.
Chocolate: I prefer a combination of semisweet and bittersweet chocolate for these cookies to balance of sweetness and richness. I recommend chopping blocks of baking chocolate. Chocolate chips will work instead in a pinch.
How to Make Chewy, Flavorful Bourbon Cookies
- Weigh your ingredients. This is my #1 tip for moist, chewy cookies. Measuring by volume (using measuring cups) makes it so easy to accidentally add too much flour, resulting in cookies that are dry, tough, hard, and don’t spread nicely as they bake. I recommend using a digital kitchen scale, but if you don’t have one, use the ‘spoon and level’ method to measure your ingredients.
- Don’t reduce the sugar! Sugar does so much more beyond simply sweetening your cookies. Learn more about sugar’s role in baking here.
- Chill the dough before baking. It’s worth the wait for thick, chewy cookies with amazing flavor, promise! Chill for at least 2 hours, but 24-48 hours is best. Skipping this step will make your cookies flatter with a much more subtle bourbon flavor. Don’t chill longer than 48 hours, as oats tend to zap moisture and will dry out your cookie dough. Learn more about chilling cookie dough here.
Can I Halve This Recipe? Can I Double This Recipe?
Yes – simply double all ingredients to yield approximately 48 cookies, or halve all ingredients to yield about 12 cookies.
Storage & Make ahead
Room Temperature: Store in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 3 days. To keep the cookies extra soft, store them with a small tortilla or apple core!
Freeze Dough: Chill the scooped cookie dough in the fridge for 24 hours, then freeze in an airtight container for up to 1 month. Thaw overnight in the fridge before baking as directed in the recipe. Baking straight from frozen will result in cookies with a milder bourbon flavor and less spread (not recommended). Learn why chilling cookie dough before freezing is important here.
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Ingredients
- 1 1/2 sticks (170 grams) unsalted butter
- 2 cups (400 grams) lightly packed dark brown sugar
- 1 1/4 cups (159 grams) all-purpose flour
- ¾ cup (90 grams) dark rye flour
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/2 teaspoon fine sea salt
- 1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon, optional
- 1 large egg, at room temperature
- 1 large egg yolk, at room temperature
- 3 tablespoons bourbon
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 2 cups (180 grams) old-fashioned rolled oats
- 4 ounces (113 grams) semisweet chocolate, chopped into chunks
- 4 ounces (113 grams) bittersweet chocolate, chopped into chunks
- Flaky sea salt, for finishing
Instructions
- In a large bowl, melt the butter. Add in the sugar and stir to combine. Let cool to just warm.
- In a medium bowl, whisk together the all-purpose flour, rye flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and cinnamon.
- To the cooled butter mixture, whisk in the egg, egg yolk, bourbon, and vanilla until very well combined. Slowly beat in the flour mixture until just combined. With a rubber spatula, stir in the oats and nearly all of the chocolate chunks, setting aside about ⅓ cup (50 grams) to garnish the cookie dough balls. Cover the dough tightly with plastic wrap and refrigerate until firm, at least 2 hours but preferably overnight.*
- Preheat the oven to 350°F. Line large baking sheets with parchment paper.
- Using a spoon or large spring-loaded scoop, drop 3-tablespoon-sized balls of dough onto a lined baking sheet, spacing at least 3 inches apart. Press a few chocolate chunks into the top of each dough ball.
- Bake for about 12 to 13 minutes, or until the edges are slightly browned. Sprinkle with flaky sea salt. Let the cookies cool on baking sheets for 5 minutes before removing to wire racks to cool completely.
- Cookies can be stored in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 3 days.
Notes
Photos by Joanie Simon.
Hi! These look fabulous! I know we’ll enjoy these as written; Our DIL has a dairy allergy – so that she can also enjoy, I was wondering if you have recommendations for replacing the butter? (I’ve had success in other recipes substituting a combination of plant butter (in sticks) and shortening; sometimes using just the plant butter provides extra liquid.)
Thanks for any advice 🙂
Made my first batch of these for my bourbon loving son. They are delicious, but flattened out a lot, and don’t look plump / thick like your’s and the photos others have shared. I do think they’d be better thicker. I measured the flour and all ingredients with the weight measurements you provided. I live at 4200 ft altitude, and am wondering if that matters? If I should tweak my ingredients for high altitude? Or, was the temperature of my dough the problem? Do you recommend letting the dough sit out and come fully to room temp (after refrigerating for the 24 hours) so it is softer and ‘warmer’? My friend who shared the recipe said she put them in cold yet they came out thick. Any suggestions would be much appreciated for next time.
I did read all that I could on your posts about flat cookies and found a couple of tips that will help I’m sure: 2 tbsp extra flour (for high altitude), and refrigerating the balls of dough at least 24 hours. Thank you!
Did mine a bit different. I did 2 cups of rye flour no wheat flour. I doubled the baking soda and baking powder because rye has a tendency not to expand like rye. Also I did 2 eggs entirely. Had to bake for around 18 mins and look for the slight “wobble” in the middle. I feel like you can be creative with this. If you are cooking with rye, add some instant coffee grounds to these cookies, the mix of the rye, chocolate, cinnimon would be a heavenly mix.
This recipe is outstanding. Perfect blend of flavors. Bourbon is subtle but impactful. Oatmeal adds a great bonus. Will be a repeat recipe
I made these at Christmas and they were a HIT! Everyone raved about them, these cookies are absolutely delicious 😋. It’s my best friend’s birthday this Thursday, and she requested these instead of cake!
Can I use semisweet chocolate? I didn’t have the bittersweet in my pantry
Hi Jackie! For the best balance of sweetness, we’d recommend using a mix of semisweet and bittersweet. If you only have semisweet, just know that your cookies will be sweeter.