I was making a second tin of oatmeal cookies when I realized I was out of raisins. All of the ingredients prices are through the roof and the supermarket was hand-to-hand combat… so I tried to find something… anything… to add to the mix.
As I searched the shelves I suddenly saw a jar… way in the back. I grabbed it and poured half a cup in.
Well, it was instant coffee.
No matter; I greased two trays, put six rows on each of mix and added confectionary sugar on top.
Twenty minutes later I pulled them out and filled the tins. Just because I was curious, I pulled one out to try it.
A Coffee Cookie.
Oh Dear God, I may just have invented Cookie Cocaine!
Whatever you do, Do Not Bake This Cookie…!
We often bake cookies with instant coffee (or strong expresso) and occasionally coffee liquor, and they’re amazing. The following is very close to what we cook from time to time:
Multiple levels of chocolate, which the expresso powder heightens, and adds just a touch of additional bitterness to offset the sweet.
And of course, if you want to up the decadence…
Homemade Coffee Ice Cream with Coffee Liquor of your choice and instant coffee/expresso for flavoring, topped with choco-coffee cookies, well, now you’re living life!
I have a double chocolate cookie recipe (cocoa powder and melted chocolate) from America’s Test Kitchen which is also elevated by the addition of espresso powder. The recipe gives the option to make it a triple chocolate cookie by adding chips and my comment in the recipe book is “too much chocolate”.
I had been using instant coffee granules, but the last time I was in the US, I bought espresso powder specifically for this recipe, which is a variation on a childhood favorite:
Along those lines, if you ever make a cookie/crumb crust out of chocolate wafers or Oreo cookies (what you do with the icing is your business), be sure to add a teaspoon or more of instant espresso powder to the crumbs. With a plain cheesecake, this is divine!
I’ve been baking them for years. Coffee muffins and fudge, too. Different concentrations. I brew very strong coffee to add to the recipe. Also make a “Wake up” cookie that has concentrated coffee and a little caffeine powder, theobromine, and ginseng in the recipe.
I got the recipe from someone who used them as “morning after” cookies for her amazing pot brownies. She had a technique for making VERY strong brownies with normal brownie taste and texture.
I don’t back with pot, just stimulants, for the record. Although I usually just take stimulants in pill form. All legal, FTR.
Baking is experimenting, as far as I’m concerned. If you’ve never deviated from a written recipe, that’s not baking, that’s just following directions.
Substitute tahini for PB in a recipe, some time. Sesame cookies are good. Coffee fudge with a caramel drizzle is good. Turning cake recipes into muffins is easy: little more flour, little less sugar, small adjustment on the leavening, don’t mix as thoroughly, and add something for texture. It’s more or less the reverse to turn a quick bread into muffins.
Maybe I should stop hijacking, and start a “recipe tweak” thread? anyone interested?
Remind me to be careful if i visit any of you. I am very sensitive to caffeine, and it would cause me problems to eat some of those cookies and other baked goods after 11am.
I love coffee, but always and only alone. I’m strongly opposed to combining it with anything else, and in particular I think it should be illegal to mix coffee with alcohol. Those are different drugs with different purposes and flavors that should never be combined. Doing so is a sign of questionable character and general untrustworthiness.
So you know, a half cup of instant coffee powder should be about 1700 g of caffeine using an estimate of 70g per teaspoon on Folger’s website. So divide that by your number of cookies to get an idea of caffeine content per cookie. You write six rows on two trays, but I don’t know how many in each row. If that two trays of 6x4, that’s about 35 g caffeine per cookie, about as much as in a can of Coke. Adults are advised not to consume more than 400mg per day.
The only goodie I make with espresso is tiramisu, and there’s no baking involved. Just so I can eat a big slice in the afternoon, I use decaf espresso. It still tastes great.
