A Nice Cuppa

As a baker and a coffee lover sometimes ya just find it necessary to meld the two together. Often I find that the addition of coffee to a chocolate based recipe helps to bring out the chocolate flavor even more. Recently I picked up a copy of Short + Sweet by Gale Gand and noticed her recipe for Chewy Chocolate Chip Espresso Cookies, after reading through the recipe and taking a peek at the photo I couldn’t pass these up. I did make a few minor changes though. I used instant espresso instead of regular finely ground espresso. And I didn’t freeze the cookies before baking them (which Gand mentions is an option), so I intended to decrease the baking time as instructed, but found that the instructed 5 minutes wasn’t enough time unless I wanted to eat my cookies with a spoon. My oven is usually pretty right on, so keep an eye on these sweeties while they’re baking.

The resulting cookie? If I close my eyes I’d think I was eating the world’s perfect fudgy brownie - only it’s shaped like a cookie! These are a must try - I have to warn you though, they aren’t for the faint of heart. If you can’t handle a serious dose of chocolate you might need to use serious caution when biting into one of these cookies.

1 3/4 cups plus 3/4 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips
4 Tbsp unsalted butter
1/4 cup all-purpose flour
1/4 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
2 large eggs
3/4 cup sugar
1 tsp instant espresso powder (original recipe calls for 1 tsp finely ground espresso)

1. Mix together the flour, baking powder and salt, set aside. Melt the 1 3/4 cups chocolate chips and butter together in the microwave for 1 minute, stir and continue microwaving in 1 minute intervals until melted and smooth.

2. In a mixer fitted with a whisk attachment, mix the eggs and sugar until light and fluffy. Add the instant espresso powder and mix, then mix in the chocolate mixture. Mix in the dry ingredients and the remaining 3/4 cup chocolate chips. Let the dough firm up in the refrigerator for 15-30 minutes.

3. Scoop the dough by heaping tablespoon onto a sheet pan and freeze. If you don’t have room in your freezer for a sheet pan, simply scoop the cookies into a smaller pan, then freeze, making sure the cookies do not clump together.

4. When ready to serve, heat the oven to 375 degrees. Without thawing the cookies, arrange them 2 inches apart on a sheet pan that has been generously buttered or is lined with parchment paper. Bake for 7 minutes. Serve warm.

*Note: You can also bake the cookies without freezing them, to do this reduce the baking time to 5 minutes.