Maple Pecan Bourbon Bars

It’s almost time for Christmas cookies, but here’s one more recipe for the Christmas posts come in earnest next week. I had pinned this recipe a while ago, as maple and brown sugar are classic fall flavors. I was going to make them, but then I didn’t have enough maple syrup. I replaced that and then I was waiting for our annual shipment of pecans that we order from Georgia. They are fresh from the farm and can’t be beat! I waited a little and finally had all of the right ingredients.

The original recipe called for walnuts, but I much prefer pecans so that’s what I used in this recipe. I feel that the two can be interchanged with little difficulty. This may seem like a lot of ingredients for an 8” square pan, but it works out. There is a shortbread crust topped with a maple/pecan pie topping. I’ve gotten so used to cutting recipes in half that it seemed like it such a big recipe, but in the end it wasn’t.

These come together very easily, and my house smelled divine while they were baking. I think in the future I would use a larger piece of foil to line the pan. A little bit of the maple syrup mixture got behind the foil and that was sticky and made it a challenge to get the bars out of the pan. Thankfully, my pan has a separate bottom, which helped tremendously. The bars are a little sticky when you cut them, but they taste like little maple pecan pies!

Maple Pecan Bourbon Bars
¾ cup butter, room temperature
1/3 cup packed brown sugar
1 3/4 cups flour
1/2 teaspoon salt 

1 cup pure maple syrup
2/3 cup packed brown sugar
2 eggs
2 tablespoons bourbon
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 cups pecans, chopped

Heat the oven to 350 degrees. Line an 8” square baking pan with foil and spray the foil with nonstick spray.

In a large mixer bowl, beat the butter and brown sugar on medium until light. Add the flour and salt and mix on low until the dough comes together. Press the dough into the prepared baking pan.

Bake for 20 minutes. Remove the pan from the oven and set aside while you prepare the filling. (Leave the oven on.)

In a large mixer bowl, combine the maple syrup, brown sugar, bourbon, eggs, vanilla extract, and salt. Stir on low to combine. Add the chopped pecans and stir to incorporate. Pour the filling over the warm crust.

Bake for about 35 minutes, until golden. Allow the bars to cool for 10 minutes. Run a knife around the edge of the pan to help loosen the bars, and then place on a wire rack to cool completely. Once cool, remove from the pan, remove the foil, and cut into bars.

Recipe from Sweet Recipeas

Bourbon Soaked Cherry Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies

I was looking for cake recipes the other day, and as sometimes happens, my husband goes looking and sends me a list of links for recipes. He usually picks some good things, even if they are not what I am looking for at that point in time. Along with a couple of cake recipes, he included some cookies recipes, as I am always looking for new cookie recipes. In this case, one of the cookie recipes he sent was for these bourbon-cherry-oat-chocolate-chip cookies.

Looking at this recipe, which at times feels like it contains everything but the kitchen sink, it really is a fall recipe. Bourbon, maple syrup, cinnamon, and molasses scream fall. Oatmeal cookies are hearty and comforting and perfect for a crisp fall day. While it is spring, it’s been super rainy here, so somehow a fall recipe doesn’t feel so out of place.

I decided to make these cookies dairy free, so that my friend at work (who is a big bourbon fan) could enjoy these. I used shortening and made sure to use dairy free chocolate chips. It’s easy to forget that dairy is found in many other ingredients so I must be careful. I also left out the coconut, as with all the other ingredients it was not needed. These cookies made the house smell fantastic! The bourbon flavor is very pleasant, but you don’t get the bite of the alcohol. I really liked these, the hearty oatmeal cookie with the flavor of bourbon and the sweetness of the chocolate and dried cherries.

Bourbon Soaked Cherry Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies

1 cup dried cherries

1/3 cup bourbon

1 1/2 cups flour

1 teaspoon cinnamon

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon salt

1 cup shortening or butter, room temperature

1 cup packed brown sugar

1/4 cup maple syrup

2 tablespoons molasses

1 egg

2 teaspoons vanilla

3 cups old-fashioned rolled oats

1 cup chocolate chips

In a small bowl, combine the dried cherries and bourbon. Cover with plastic wrap and allow to sit overnight.

Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Line two baking sheets with silicone baking mats.

In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, cinnamon, baking soda and salt; set aside. In a large mixer bowl, beat the shortening and brown sugar on medium until light. Add the maple syrup and molasses and beat on medium to combine. Add the egg and vanilla and stir on low until combined.

Add half of the flour, mix on low, and add the remaining flour, mixing on low just until combined. Add the oats, dried cherries (and any liquid), and the chocolate chips. Stir to incorporate; you may need to finish mixing by hand.

Scoop the dough onto the baking sheet, using about 1-1/2 tablespoons dough for each cookie.

Bake for 12-14 minutes, until set and barely golden along the edges. Do not over bake, the cookies will firm up as they cool.  

Recipe from How Sweet It Is

Bourbon Cake

This cake was a Kentucky bourbon cake, but I didn’t use Kentucky bourbon, so I’m just going to call it a bourbon cake. I mentioned recently that we went and had lunch in Woodinville, WA, which has tasting rooms for many of the wineries in the state. In addition to wineries, local distilleries have set up in the area. We visited Woodinville Whiskey Company and picked up some of their bourbon whiskey. It’s great stuff! 

My friend at work really likes bourbon and her birthday was coming up so I went looking for a bourbon cake. One thing I have noticed is that many cakes and cookies with alcohol contain so little that you can’t taste it. That’s ok, but this was one cake that I really wanted to taste the bourbon. I found a cake, and my husband found this one and I decided this would be great. I checked to make sure that my friend liked dates; you could always omit them if you wanted. And since this cake contains nearly a cup of bourbon, I figured you would be able to taste it!

This cake came together well, the batter was very light and fluffy. I baked mine the longer side of the baking time. Since I knew I was going to soak the cake in liquid, I wanted it to be cooked all the way through! The original recipe had you soak the cake in the cake, which I did. It made it very hard to remove the cake from the pan, so if you’d prefer to remove the cake from the pan first, that would certainly work. I added a simple glaze make with powdered sugar and some of the remaining soaking syrup (mainly to cover the fact that my cake didn’t come out the pan 100% cleanly.) Boy, this was a fantastic cake! Everyone loved it. I warned everyone that the cake contained quite a bit of uncooked alcohol, but no one seemed to mind.

Bourbon Cake

3 cups cake flour

1 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon salt

1 cup butter, room temperature

1 1/2 cups sugar

1/2 cup packed brown sugar

4 eggs, room temperature

2 teaspoons vanilla

1 cup buttermilk, room temperature

1/3 cup bourbon

1/2 cup dates, chopped

1/2 cup butter

3/4 cup sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla

1/2 cup bourbon

1 cup powdered sugar

2-3 tablespoons reserved bourbon soaking syrup

Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Butter or spray with nonstick cooking spray a large Bundt pan.

In a medium bowl, combine the cake flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt. In a large mixer bowl, beat the butter, sugar, and brown sugar on medium until light and fluffy.  Add the eggs, one at a time, beating for one minute after adding each egg. Scrape down the sides of the bowl as needed. Stir in the vanilla.

In a measuring cup, combine the buttermilk and bourbon.  With the mixer running on low, add 1/3 of the flour and then half of the bourbon mixture. Add another 1/3 of the flour mixture and the remaining bourbon mixture. Finally, add the remaining flour mixture. Stir just until the flour is incorporated. Fold in the dates with a spatula. Spread the batter evenly in the prepared pan.

Bake for 50-55 minutes until golden brown and a thin knife inserted in the center of the cake come out clean.  Cool the cake in the pan on a wire rack for 10 minutes.  While the cake is cooling, make the bourbon soaking syrup.

In a small sauce pan, melt the butter over medium heat. Stir in the sugar and vanilla and stir. Remove the pan from the heat momentarily and add the bourbon. Return the pan to the heat and stir until the sugar is completely dissolved. 

With the cake still in the pan, use a long, thin knife to poke holes in the cake. Pour ¾ of the soaking syrup over the cake, allowing the syrup to soak in. Allow the cake to cool completely. Reserve the remaining glaze. (Alternatively, you could remove the cake from the pan, poke holes in the cake and then pour the soaking syrup over the cake. The cake won’t soak up as much of the syrup, but it will still be good.)

Remove the cake from the pan. Combine the powdered sugar with 2-3 tablespoons of the bourbon soaking syrup and whisk to combine. Drizzle the glaze over the cake. Allow the glaze to set before serving. 

Recipe from Bake it with Booze