As soon as bake your favorite cocktail was announced as the July theme for What’s Baking, I started looking up rum and coke recipes. Rum and coke was my go-to in college and even though I’m more likely to opt for a glass of wine, I still consider it my favorite. Old habits die hard, I suppose.

When I started looking for recipes, I assumed I’d make cupcakes… and then I ran across these. These start with store-bought sugar cookie dough and then you dress them up to make them rum or cola flavored. I thought having two separate doughs would make the flavors come through more strongly, but the flavor of the cookies is on the subtle side. Knowing they’re rum and coke, I can totally pick out the flavors, but if I was just handed the cookie and told to guess, I’m not 100% sure I could.

Either way, these were delicious and a very fun baking experiment!

Rum & Coke Cookies
(from She Knows)
Makes about 3 dozen

2 tubes Pillsbury sugar cookie dough
2 c. flour
1 egg white
1/4 cup white rum (and 1 Tbsp. rum extract, if desired – I skipped this but would recommend it!)
20 oz. Coca-Cola
2 Tbsp. cocoa powder

Mix one tube of the cookie dough until smooth and creamy and then mix in one cup of flour, white rum and rum extract (if using) until well combined. Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least an hour.

Add Coca-Cola to a saucepan and over medium-high heat, reduce until only 1/4 cup remains. Cool slightly. Mix the other tube of dough until creamy and smooth. Add boiled-down Coke, remaining one cup of flour and cocoa powder and mix until combined. Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least an hour.

After the dough has chilled, roll them into rectangles, approximately 1/4-inch thick. Brush egg whites on the rum-flavored dough and stack the coke flavored dough on top. Cut in half lengthwise. Brush the top of one half with egg white and stack the other half on top of it. Repeat until you have a stack the desired width. Wrap log in plastic and refrigerate overnight.

Preheat oven to 350F degrees. Unwrap the chilled dough and slice the stacked layers approximately 1/4-inch thick. Bake for 12-15 minutes, until lightly browned around the edges. Cool on baking sheet for a few minutes before removing to a cooling rack to cool completely.