Bacon Chocolate Chip Cookies — These decadent and indulgent chocolate chip cookies are the perfect balance of savory, salty and sweet in every delectable chewy bite! With crispy bacon, butterscotch chips, tons of melted chocolate, and flaky sea salt, they’re a flavor explosion for those bold enough to give them a try!
Table of contents
Easy Bacon Chocolate Chip Cookies Recipe
If you have a love of bacon and chewy chocolate chip cookies, this unique chocolate chip cookie recipe is the best of both worlds. I promise you, this isn’t the first bacon chocolate chip cookie recipe on the internet, nor will it be the last.
Prepare for your taste buds to be amazed because as the saltiness of crisp bacon beautifully complements the rich decadence of dark chocolate, sweet butterscotch chips, and flaky sea salt in these flavor-loaded bacon chocolate chip cookies.
The salty bacon and bittersweet dark chocolate in these cookies create a heavenly umami taste that is not only unique but unforgettable.
The edges of these thin cookies are slightly crisp, the inside is soft, dense, and chewy. Since the bacon on the top is minced finely, its texture doesn’t interrupt the cookie. And the bacon and the flake salt on top give a nice tiny crunch.
If you are looking for something beyond just an ordinary classic chocolate chip cookie to serve all the favorite dads in your life on Father’s Day, try these extraordinary cookies.
They are sure to “bring home the bacon” or at least the topic of conversation of your next family get-together or celebration. And let’s face it, bacon really does make everything better.
Why You Will Love These Chocolate Chip Bacon Cookies
If you’re sitting there thinking, “bacon … in cookies?” let me share all the reasons why this recipe rocks.
- Add-Ins Galore: These cookies are perfect for anyone who loves all the add-ins more than the cookie part itself, and are chock full of the good stuff!
- Sweet and salty combination: The saltiness of the bacon with the sweetness of the chocolate chip cookie dough, combined with that extra pop of sea salt on top really does create the best flavor profile.
- Soft and chewy: If thin ooey-gooey cookies with tons of melted chocolate are your first love, these soft and chewy cookies will be a dream come true.
- Loaded and flavorful: If salty bacon and chocolate didn’t already draw you in, add to the mix sweet butterscotch and you have one loaded cookie!
- Easy to make: Mix, scoop, and bake! These cookies are ready in under an hour with no chill time required.
Ingredients in Bacon Chocolate Chip Cookies
If you opened a package of bacon for breakfast but are unsure what to do with the remaining uncooked portion, these bacon cookies are the answer!
All ingredients are easy to find at your local grocery store and are common fridge and pantry items including:
- Cooked and finely chopped bacon
- Salted butter (or unsalted butter if you prefer a less salty cookie)
- Packed dark brown sugar
- Large egg
- Pure vanilla extract
- All-purpose flour
- Baking soda
- Baking powder
- Fine table salt
- Chopped dark chocolate bar
- Butterscotch chips
- Sea salt flakes, for garnish
Note: Scroll down to the recipe card section of the post for the ingredients with amounts included and for more complete directions.
How to Make Chocolate Chip Bacon Cookies
Remember to scroll all the way down to the actual recipe card for full details!
Step 1: Prepare your oven for baking the cookie recipe by preheating it to 350°F and then line two baking sheets with parchment paper.
Step 2: Prep your ingredients by chopping six pieces of your bacon into small pieces that are roughly the size of a chocolate chip. Mince the remaining two pieces of bacon to use for topping your cookies.
Step 3: Roughly chop your dark chocolate bar and butterscotch chips.
Step 4: In a large bowl of a stand mixer, cream butter, brown sugar, egg, and vanilla until creamy and light in color.
Step 5: To the wet mixture add your dry ingredients and then mix until fully combined, scraping the sides of the bowl as needed.
Step 6: Gently fold in your butterscotch chips, chopped chocolate bar, and the large pieces of your chopped cooked bacon pieces.
Step 7: Using a medium cookie scoop, form the dough into balls that are roughly 2-3 Tablespoons in size.
Step 8: Roll balls in the remaining chopped chocolate bar pieces and place them on prepared baking sheets.
Step 9: Bake cookies until the edges are a light golden brown color.
Step 10: Remove the pan from the oven, tap the sides of the cookie sheet on the countertop to settle the cookies.
Step 11: Immediately sprinkle the top of each cookie with the remaining diced bacon pieces and flaked sea salt.
Step 12: Transfer to a wire rack to cool and set fully before digging into your bacon grease chocolate chip cookies.
Maple Bacon, You Say?
For even more decadence, try using maple bacon for some maple bacon chocolate chip cookies!
On its own, this bacon comes with an already sweet and salty combination and the maple flavor will only add to these bacon cookies. Give it a try and let me know what you think!
What Kind of Bacon Should I Use for Cookies?
I prefer to use regular cut bacon, not the thick stuff.
I actually feel like the cheap thin store-brand bacon works very well. That’s because thin bacon gives all the flavor without a clunky, tough texture.
Do I Have to Add Bacon?
The point of these cookies is to have, well, bacon in them.
However, if you can’t get past the idea of cookies + bacon, it’s fine, we can still be friends. I know that these aren’t going to be everyone’s cup of tea.
Just omit the bacon and make the rest of the recipe as written.
Storing Leftover Chocolate Chip Bacon Cookies
This bacon chocolate chip cookies recipe yields 12 large cookies which is great since they are best consumed within a day or two.
If you have leftover cookies, cool them completely then store them in an airtight container or ziplock bag in the refrigerator for 2-3 days.
You could also store the cookies in the freezer in a freezer-safe bag for 4 to 6 weeks. Thaw overnight in the refrigerator or on the countertop at room temperature for a few hours and enjoy.
Remember to Refrigerate Extra Cookies
Even though refrigerating extra cookies isn’t typically the norm, because these have bacon in them, you’ll want to keep extras in the fridge for food safety considerations.
Expert Tips for the Best Bacon Chocolate Chip Cookies
- Cooking your bacon: While I love this air fryer twisted bacon, the standard stove top method works best for preparing your bacon. Cook your bacon in a large frying pan on medium heat until the bacon is crispy. Absorb excess grease with paper towels, cool, and then chop into pieces.
- Bacon grease: Stir in a few tablespoons of solidified bacon fat to the creamed butter mixture to amplify even more bacon taste. Bacon fat chocolate chip cookies sound strange, but taste delicious!
- Bourbon: For bourbon bacon chocolate chip cookies, add 2 to 3 tablespoons bourbon to your mixing bowl. The flavor and aroma will be out of this world. Don’t worry though the alcohol bakes out! Add an additional 1 tablespoon flour if your dough is a bit moist from the addition of the bourbon.
- Spread: These cookies do spread a bit so placing them a few inches apart on the baking sheet is advised so you don’t end up with one big glob of cookie. The parchment paper or using a silicone baking mat will also help prevent overspreading.
- To serve: Try these with a scoop of French vanilla ice cream or make the ultimate ice cream sandwich with them! For a dangerously sinful dessert, try these bacon chocolate chip cookies with my salted caramel bourbon ice cream.
Salt Tips
There is a fair amount of salt in the cookies but it works well and I personally love dark chocolate + salt.
However, if you are a person who is salt sensitive, trying to watch your salt, or you’re not a salty-and-sweet desserts person, consider the following:
-Use bacon you know isn’t super salty
-Rather than using salted butter, use unsalted butter
-Omit the fine table salt in the cookie dough
-Omit the flaky sea salt garnish
Bacon Chocolate Chip Cookies FAQs
A 75% cacao dark chocolate bar is best as the bitter chocolate compliments the sweet and salty flavors in the cookie. I used a Ghirardelli Intense Dark Chocolate Bar although other brands are fine. If you have a Trader Joe’s in your area, their Dark Chocolate 72% Pound Plus Bars are great.
You can use 1/2 to 3/4 cup dark chocolate chips or semi-sweet chocolate chips in the BATTER instead of a chopped chocolate bar. However, do not roll the cookie dough balls in chocolate chips before baking; simply omit that step as they will not melt the same in the oven.
If you are using a chocolate bar, you will need to chop it into pieces. And I also chop my butterscotch chips, but it’s optional.
If using chocolate chips rather than a chocolate bar, I suggest chopping them a bit before adding it to the dough.
I just love that when you chop both the chocolate and the butterscotch you get a bit of each flavor in each bite.
No chilling is required for this easy bacon chocolate chip cookie recipe.
However, if you want to chill the dough for about 1 hour before baking, the cookies will spread less.
While most cookie dough can be frozen before baking, with these bacon chocolate chip cookies are so loaded with add-ins, and with freshly cooked bacon, they may not be ideal candidates for freezing prior to baking. I have never tried.
If you would like to still try, flash freeze your dough balls on a parchment paper-lined baking sheet. Store in a freezer-safe bag for up to 6 weeks. Bake from frozen by adding 1-2 minutes of baking time.
While flaky sea salt on top is optional, the extra salt on top really brings out the bacon flavor and adds a nice crunch so I highly recommend trying it on at least a few of the cookies the first time you make them.
I use Maldon Flaky Sea Salt in any recipe that calls flaky sea salt, such as in my Fudgy Sea Salt Brownies.
It’s widely available on Amazon or your local grocery store. A small box lasts forever! If you are unable to find flaky sea salt, try coarse sea salt instead.
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Bacon Cookies
Ingredients
- 8 strips of cooked bacon, divided and diced*
- ½ cup salted butter, softened (unsalted butter may be used if you want to reduce the overall saltiness of the cookies)
- ½ cup dark brown sugar, packed (light brown sugar may be substituted)
- 1 large egg
- 2 teaspoons vanilla
- 1 ¼ cups all-purpose flour
- ½ teaspoon baking soda
- ½ teaspoon baking powder
- ½ teaspoon fine table salt, omit if you want to reduce the overall saltiness of the cookies
- 3.5 ounces dark chocolate bar, finely chopped**, divided
- ½ cup butterscotch chips, finely chopped
- Flakey sea salt, optional for garnishing (omit if you want to reduce the overall saltiness of the cookies)
Instructions
- Cook the bacon on the stove in a large skillet and blot the excess grease from the cooked bacon with paper towels.
- Chop 6 strips of the bacon into small pieces about the size of chocolate chips; set aside.
- Very finely mince the other 2 strips of bacon. This will be used as a garnish on the cookies after baking; set aside. Tip – Do not mingle the bacon after you chop it since 6 strips of it goes into the batter and 2 strips of it is reserved for garnishing.
- Preheat oven to 350F and line two baking sheets with parchment paper or Silpat liners; set aside.
- To the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment (or large mixing bowl and handheld electric mixer), add the butter, brown sugar, egg, vanilla, and beat until light and fluffy, about 5 minutes; stop to scrape down the sides of the bowl.
- Add the flour, baking soda, baking powder, optional table salt, and beat on low speed to incorporate; stop to scrape down the sides of the bowl.
- Add half the chopped chocolate, all the butterscotch chips, the 6 strips of chopped bacon, and beat on low to just incorporate.
- Optionally, at this point you can chill the mixing bowl of dough in your fridge for up to 1 hour. This will help prevent the cookies from spreading somewhat as they bake, but it's optional.
- Using a medium cookie scoop, form approximately 12 balls of dough, using about 2 to 3 tablespoons of dough per cookie dough ball.
- Roll each ball in a bit of the reserved chopped chocolate.
- Evenly space the cookie dough balls on the two baking sheets. Tip – These cookies do spread, even if you chill the dough, so don't crowd them on the baking sheet. I suggest baking 6 cookies (8 max) per baking sheet.
- Bake for about 10 to 14 minutes, or until the edges have just barely set, and the tops are glossy. Cookies will looks very glossy and under-done when you pull them from the oven, but they do firm up as the cool. Tips – Watch your cookies and not the clock in determining doneness. All ovens, climates, baking sheets, and ingredients vary, and therefore so will baking time. For best results, bake one sheet of cookies at a time, on the center oven rack, rotating once midway through the baking time for optimal results. Repeat with the second sheet of cookies.
- Optionally but recommended, when you remove the trays of cookies from the oven, give the trays a couple taps on your counter, making sure to have a firm hold on the trays with hot mitts. This shakes out air and settles the cookies.
- While the chocolate is still melted and warm, evenly sprinkle the tops of the cookies with the finely minced bacon from the 2 strips of cooked bacon.
- Optionally, evenly sprinkle the cookies with Maldon Sea Salt Flakes, your favorite sea salt, or coarse salt if you don't have sea salt on hand.
- Serve after cookies are cooled and set fully. Because they are thin, they'll break more easily if they're not properly cooled before serving. These cookies are best eaten the day you make them, or within 24 hours. Extra cookies should be kept airtight in the fridge, where they'll keep for up to 3 days. I haven't ever frozen these cookies, either unbaked dough or baked cookies, so cannot comment how that would work. In my opinion, this is a recipe you should plan to make and consume, rather than store long-term.
Notes
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
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