Chocolate Chunk Bourbon Honeycomb Cookies

Where I Got the Idea for These Cookies

I know you are here because you are in dire need of one or seven of these little guys, right? And let me tell you, the end result is worth every step you have to take along the way. I promise.

Before I get on with the recipe, I want to acknowledge my friend Viviane from Chocolate Chilli Mango.

Putting honeycomb candy in chocolate chip cookies was her most excellent idea, and I just had to run with it.

How to Make Them

Like most cookies, these aren’t really hard to make at all. You’ll use The Creaming Method to put the dough together.

The basic ingredients for these cookies are all very easy to find, and you may own most of them already.

Here’s what you’ll need:

• browned butter, chilled: take 1 stick of butter, brown it, then chill it until it’s solid again. Read my post on how to make browned butter and/or watch the video in this post about browning butter. You can also use 1 stick of “whole” butter if you don’t want to use browned butter.
• dark brown sugar: you can use light brown sugar if you’d rather, or if you don’t have dark brown
• vanilla paste or extract: rounds out the flavors and adds a nice mellow note to the cookies. Use paste or extract as desired
• kosher salt: brightens and focuses the flavors and counteracts any bitterness from the chocolate and Bourbon
• egg: provides some structure, aids in browning, and adds a little to the rise. You’ll need 1 large egg
• all purpose flour: provides bulk and structure
• baking soda: I use baking soda here primarily to balance the acidic honey and molasses (found in the brown sugar). It does not really affect the rise in this case. Don’t substitute baking powder
• chocolate chunks: chopped chocolate. Your favorite for eating. A mix of dark and milk is nice, but use what you like
• honeycomb candy: chopped fairly finely. Use my recipe or your favorite. Or buy some ready made.
• flaky sea salt for finishing: I love topping cookies with just a touch of flaky salt. Don’t go overboard here. Seriously just a few flakes are enough to provide the occasional “zing” on the tongue. Smoked salt is especially nice to go with the Bourbon.

Here’s a litte more info about the two “specialty ingredients” I used in this recipe.

Cloister Honey

The first is Cloister Honey, based in my hometown of Charlotte, NC, and their very boozy Bourbon Honey made with Woodford Reserve Bourbon.

Because why not use the best, right? 

Videri Chocolate

The other ingredient that I used because it is both delicious and local is Videri Chocolate.

You, of course, can and should use your favorite semi-sweet and/or bittersweet chocolate in your cookies.

I used Videri because it’s local to me.

Procedure

1. Cream together the solid browned butter, dark brown sugar, honey, salt, and vanilla until fairly light.
2. Beat the egg and add that, mixing well until combined.
3. Whisk together the flour and baking soda.
4. Mix in on low until well-combined.
5. Add the chopped chocolate and honeycomb by hand, sort of kneading it into the stiff dough.
6. Portion out between 12-24 cookies, and bake.

Pro Tip

PRO TIP: Refrigerate the dough for at least an hour and up to 36 hours before portioning and baking. This allows the flour to completely hydrate and for the flavors to deepen before baking.

About That Honeycomb Candy

One cannot very well make Honeycomb Cookies without some Bourbon Honeycomb. You can absolutely use your favorite recipe, but I admit I’m partial to the one I used.

You can make it using regular honey and just add in a splash of bourbon, but the Cloister honey is truly delicious, and if you can get some, I recommend it.

You can switch up the flavor in the candy and cookies by using other infused honeys, too.

Does the Candy Melt in the Oven?

That’s a good question. You can see in the photos that any candy peeking out around the edges of the cookies will melt some.

But the dough also acts as an insulator, so the honeycomb inside, closer to the center of the cookies will retain some of its light crunchy texture.

The combination of crunchy candy, light and airy candy, and mellow chocolate chunks works really well and gives these cookies a lot of textural contrast.

A Note About Measurements

I strongly encourage you to buy a scale, especially for making my recipes which are almost all written by weight. I do try to add volume measurements when I can, but these are much less accurate, by nature.

For accuracy and consistency, using a scale, whether in grams or ounces, is the way to go.

This is the scale I use and recommend:

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03/07/2024 05:03 pm GMT

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Chocolate Chunk Honeycomb Cookies

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Jennifer Field

These Bourbon Honeycomb Chocolate Chunk Cookies are good for what ails you. I am pretty sure I have never had a better chocolate chip cookie in my life

4.37 from 11 votes

Tried this recipe?Please give it a star rating!

Print Recipe Pin Recipe

Prep Time 15 minutes mins

Cook Time 12 minutes mins

Total Time 27 minutes mins

Course Cookies and Bars

Cuisine American

Servings 18 cookies

Calories 200 kcal

Equipment

• Set of 2 Cooling Racks
• Cloister Honey’s Bourbon Infused Honey
• Chardonnay Smoked Salt
• 2 oz Cookie Scoop
• Unbleached Parchment Sheets for Half Sheet Pans
• Set of Two Half-Sheet Pans

Ingredients

• 1 stick butter 4 oz, browned and cooled/chilled so it’s a soft solid*** SEE NOTES
• 6 oz 3/4 cup, packed dark brown sugar
• 1 oz Cloister Honey Bourbon Honey (or any honey)
• 1 teaspoon vanilla paste (or extract)
• ½ teaspoon kosher salt you can use less, but don’t use less than 1/4 teaspoon
• 1 egg at cool room temperature
• 8 oz all purpose flour 2 barely scant cups measured by whisking the flour, spooning it in the measures and sweeping off the excess with a straight edge. Do you see why you need a scale?
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 8 oz total roughly chopped bittersweet semi-sweet and/or dark milk chocolate
• 1 ½ oz slightly generous 1/2 cup crushed/crumbled Bourbon honeycomb candy (or any honeycomb candy, store bought or homemade)
• sea salt for sprinkling (optional but really lovely, smoked salt goes especially well with the Bourbon)

Instructions

 

• Preheat the oven to 350F and place racks in the upper and lower thirds of your oven.
• If you don’t know how to brown butter, I can help. You’ll have to do this step ahead because the butter needs time to chill back down in the fridge so it is somewhat firm but not hard.
• Combine re-solidified brown butter, dark brown sugar (or light brown sugar and molasses), honey, vanilla and salt in the bowl of your stand mixer. Cream until light and fluffy, scraping bowl as necessary. This will take about 5 minutes.
• Lightly beat the egg and add to the mixer. Beat again until light, another 2 minutes or so. Scrape the bowl as necessary.
• Whisk the flour and baking soda together and then add to the mixer. Mix on low until flour is mostly mixed in, then increase the speed to medium and mix an additional 30 seconds.
• Scrape bowl. This is a fairly stiff batter, so mix in the chopped chocolate and honeycomb by hand. I actually ended up sort of lightly kneading the dough to make sure all the mix-ins were evenly incorporated.
• Scoop cookies onto parchment-lined pans. I scaled my dough at roughly 1.5-1.6 oz per cookie since I wanted 18 cookies. If you are feeling very anal, do what I did and weigh your dough. Then divide that weight by the number of cookies you want–12-24. I wanted 18.
• Press each mound of dough down just slightly and sprinkle with a small amount of finishing salt of your choice, smoked or otherwise.
• If you make 18 cookies like I did, bake for 6 minutes and then switch the pans and bake an additional 5-6 minutes. Baking times will vary slightly depending on how many cookies you decide to make. When done, cookies will be golden brown around the edges and lightly brown and set on the tops.
• Remove pans from the oven and slide the parchment onto cooling racks. Don’t even attempt to eat one for at least 10-15 minutes. That honeycomb will be molten, and I don’t want you to hurt yourself.
• Cool completely.
• Sit on your couch and eat all the cookies. Or you can store them, tightly sealed at room temperature for up to a week. Because of the honey and molasses in them, they will stay chewy.

Did You Make Any Changes?

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Video

Notes

Prep time does not include time to brown and cool the butter or the time to make the honeycomb. You can easily take care of both of these steps a day or two before baking.

Here’s the recipe for the Bourbon honeycomb candy

***You can use whole butter without browning it, but browned butter definitely will give your cookies a deeper flavor.

I scaled my dough to make 18 cookies and the nutritionals reflect that. You can make smaller or larger cookies if you want. Just watch the baking time because it will take a couple of minutes, more or less, depending on if you’re making larger or smaller cookies.

Nutrition

Serving: 1cookieCalories: 200kcalCarbohydrates: 26gProtein: 2.8gFat: 9.5gSaturated Fat: 6gCholesterol: 26mgSodium: 196mgFiber: 1gSugar: 14.3g

Keyword honeycomb chocolate chip cookies, how to make chocolate chunk cookies with bourbon honeycomb

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