I feel that coffee cake is a classic cake and so had to be transformed into a cookie. I didn't want to make an espresso cookie and so thought it needed to come au lait. In this case I opted for a cream cheese icing, half of which is flavoured with coffee so you can give the cookies a slightly frothy and blended look.
Makes 16
Hands-on Time 30 minutes plus chilling (overnight)
Baking Time 14 minutes
Ingredients
325g Unsalted butter (softened)
200g Light brown sugar
175g Caster sugar
2 tsp Vanilla extract
2 Eggs, large
400g Plain flour
1 tsp Bicarbonate of soda
1 tsp Fine salt
2 tbsp Instant coffee powder (fine)
2 tbsp Cocoa
200g Pecans
150g Cream cheese (room-temp)
300g Icing sugar
Equipment
Freestanding mixer with paddle and whisk
Spatula
Knife
Baking parchment
Baking sheet (ideally aluminium)
Round bottomed spoon, such as a tablespoon measure
Wire rack
Small bowl
Spoon
Add 250 grams of butter, light brown and caster sugars to the bowl of the mixer and beat on a medium-high speed for 5 minutes until you have a very light and fluffy mixture.
Add the vanilla extract and two large eggs and beat for a couple of seconds until combined.
Add the flour, 1 tablespoon of coffee, cocoa, bicarb, and salt and again beat for a couple of seconds until combined. Scrape the sides down using a spatula to make sure everything is incorporated.
Chop the pecans into small pieces and add to the dough. Give it a final mix. You shouldn’t need to run the mixer for more than 10 seconds. The key thing is not to over-mix.
Take a sheet of baking parchment and place the dough onto. Shape the dough into a wide, long sausage and roll up before popping it into fridge to chill for 30 minutes.
Line a baking sheet with parchment.
Take the dough out of the fridge, slice into 16 equal rounds. Roll each round into a ball and place onto the lined baking sheet.
Pop the sheet back into the fridge, ideally overnight, so the dough balls can firm up.
Preheat the oven to 170°C/150°C (Fan)/325°F/Gas mark 3.
Slide the baking sheet out of the fridge and leave the dough balls on the shelf.
Once the oven has warmed up line the baking sheet with another piece of parchment.
Place approx 6/8 balls spaced about 10cm apart from each other onto the baking parchment.
Pop the tray into the oven on a middle shelf and bake for 14 minutes.
Remove the tray from the oven. Slide the parchment carefully, with the cookies, onto the worktop. Re-line with more paper and bake your next batch.
After the cookies have rested for a couple of minutes they should be firm enough for you to transfer onto a wire rack to fully cool. Don’t forget they will get firmer as they cool.
When the cookies have cooled you can get on with the cream cheese topping.
Combine the cream cheese with the remaining 75 grams of butter in a clean bowl in the freestanding mixer with the whisk attachment on low.
Add the icing sugar and combine until you have a smooth cream cheese frosting.
Decant half of the cream cheese into a separate bowl and add the remaining instant coffee. Stir using a clean spatula until incorporated.
Dollop a few small spoonfuls of each cream cheese frosting on top of the cookies and then create a swirl using the back of a spoon.
If you leave the cookies to rest the frosting will firm up.
Enjoy!
