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Butterbourbon Lemon Cookies

Prep Time30 minutes
Cook Time30 minutes
Chill3 hours 20 minutes
Total Time4 hours 20 minutes
Servings: 36 - 42

Ingredients

Butterbourbon Chips

  • ¼ c Unsalted Butter
  • ½ c Brown Sugar
  • 2 tbsp Heavy Cream
  • 1 tbsp Bourbon
  • ¼ tsp Vanilla
  • ¼ tsp Salt

Cookies

  • 5 c Flour
  • 1 ½ tsp Baking Soda
  • 1 ½ tsp Salt
  • 3 tsp Espresso Powder
  • 4 Lemons
  • 1 c Unsalted Butter
  • 1 c Brown Sugar
  • 1 c Sugar
  • 2 Eggs
  • ½ tsp Almond Extract

Lemon Sugar

  • 2 Lemons
  • 1 c Sugar

Instructions

Butterbourbon Chips

  • Melt the butter in a large heavy bottomed pot over medium/low heat.
  • Stir the brown sugar as soon as the butter is melted. Stir just until the sugar is combined with the butter.
  • The sugar will begin to bubble. Without mixing, let it continue to cook for 5 minutes.
  • Whisk the cream into the cooked sugar. Reduce heat to the low and cook until it reaches 225°. 
  • Remove from heat and stir in the bourbon, vanilla, and salt.
  • Cool for 15 minutes.
  • Pour the mixture onto parchment or a non-stick mat and freeze for 2-3 hours.
  • Break the hardened candy into small chunks and place back in the freezer.

Cookies

  • Combine flour, baking soda, salt, and espresso powder in a bowl. Set aside.
  • Zest four lemons and add to a mixing bowl and cream with the butter and sugars.
  • Add the eggs and almond extract and continue to mix.
  • Slowly add the flour to the mixer about a ¼ at a time until incorporated.
  • Juice 2 lemons and add to the dough (no more than ¼ cup) and mix.
  • Add the butterbourbon chips and continue mixing until combined.
  • Cover the dough and refrigerate for about 20 minutes.
  • Preheat oven to 350°
  • Zest two lemons and add to a bowl with a cup of sugar. Stir to combine.
  • Take about a tablespoon of the dough, roll into a ball, then roll in the lemon sugar to coat. Continue to create the sugar-coated dough balls and place on a cookie sheet about 2 in apart.
  • Bake for 8-10 minutes.
  • Let cookies cool for a few minutes before moving to a cooling rack.

Notes

  • When adding the cream in the butterbourbon, be careful as it will splatter
  • Depending on your lemons and the amount of juice, the dough could be slightly wet, adding a little additional flour will help bring the dough back together
  • As these are homemade butterbourbon chips, they do not hold their shape like store bought. You may find that they tend to leak a bit out of the cookie when baking. You can split the batch and put chips in half then double ball the cookies with the chipless on the outside, if you prefer less leakage.
  • Do not over bake the cookies as the lemon sugar may over-cook changing the flavor profile of the cookie.
  • The formed sugar-coated balls can be frozen, when ready to eat they can be baked from frozen, just increase the cooking time to 13-15 minutes.