I've only recently embraced the idea of using milk chocolate in baking. Dark chocolate is my true love and I used to just swap in bittersweet or dark chocolate whenever a recipe called for milk chocolate. But now I appreciate that there are some pretty great tasting milk chocolates out there and I make an effort to keep milk chocolate on hand.
As I was flipping through Tish Boyle's Flavorful looking for an easy dessert to make for work, coming across her recipe for "Espresso-Milk Chocolate Chunk Cookies" seemed fortuitous. The cookies are flavored with ground coffee and studded with milk chocolate chunks, walnuts, and chocolate-covered espresso beans. Not only did I have an open five-pound bag of milk chocolate chunks handy, but I also happened to have some dark chocolate-covered espresso beans and espresso pillows from Trader Joe's.
I had purchased the chocolate espresso beans because I was planning to use them as garnish for the Chocolate Coffee Cake with Dark Chocolate Ganache from Baked Explorations -- but at the last minute I decided to make another cake instead, so the espresso beans have been just sitting in the cupboard. And I had purchased the tin of espresso pillows (bits of espresso beans coated in toffee and dark chocolate) on impulse while waiting in line to check out at Trader Joe's during the same shopping trip. (The Trader Joe's in Foggy Bottom has a single checkout line that feeds into all of the cash registers. The line moves fast but is often long, and the store has maximized the opportunity to encourage impulse buying by forcing shoppers to wait in line between shelves of enticing candy and nutrition bars on one side, and displays of pies and baked goods on the other.)
This is an easy recipe but it requires a little advance planning because you need to chill the dough before baking. You beat softened butter until creamy; add sugar and light brown sugar and beat until light; add ground coffee, vanilla, and an egg; mix in the dry ingredients (flour, baking soda, salt); and fold in milk chocolate chunks, walnuts, and chocolate-covered espresso beans (I used a 50-50 mixture by weight of whole espresso pillows and chopped chocolate-covered espresso beans). I chilled the dough for a few hours before scooping it out (I used a #30 scoop), flattening the cookies, and baking. I got 20 cookies from a batch.
The cookies looked like ordinary chocolate chunk cookies, except that the color was a little more cool and milky instead of warm golden brown, and you could see the specks of coffee grounds. They were quite tasty. The ground coffee in the batter delivered a lot of coffee flavor, but I was surprised that there wasn't more of a coffee kick from the chocolate-covered espresso beans (but then again, I think those beans are mostly chocolate). The mild milk chocolate is great with the coffee. My favorite part was actually the espresso pillows. The melted toffee layer yielded a wonderful caramel-y crunch. In the future, I would probably use just espresso pillows. Because they are smaller than the chocolate-covered espresso beans, you don't have to bother chopping the before putting them into the batter. Plus, the recipe calls for 2.8 ounces of chocolate-covered beans and the espresso pillows conveniently happen to come in a 2.75-ounce tin. But really, the toffee crunch is a wonderful touch.
If I have one criticism about these cookies it's that the texture was a little loose. By that, I mean that when you bite into a cookie, it tends to fall apart and creates a big mess if you don't happen to be using a plate. It's the sort of cookie that will get easily crumbled if you stick one in a Ziploc bag and throw it into your purse. Because I am almost always packing up my cookies and taking them somewhere -- including usually a ride on the subway -- I tend to prefer cookies that are sturdier. But that's a pretty minor quibble.
Recipe: "Espresso-Milk Chocolate Chunk Cookies" from Flavorful by Tish Boyle.
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As I was flipping through Tish Boyle's Flavorful looking for an easy dessert to make for work, coming across her recipe for "Espresso-Milk Chocolate Chunk Cookies" seemed fortuitous. The cookies are flavored with ground coffee and studded with milk chocolate chunks, walnuts, and chocolate-covered espresso beans. Not only did I have an open five-pound bag of milk chocolate chunks handy, but I also happened to have some dark chocolate-covered espresso beans and espresso pillows from Trader Joe's.
I had purchased the chocolate espresso beans because I was planning to use them as garnish for the Chocolate Coffee Cake with Dark Chocolate Ganache from Baked Explorations -- but at the last minute I decided to make another cake instead, so the espresso beans have been just sitting in the cupboard. And I had purchased the tin of espresso pillows (bits of espresso beans coated in toffee and dark chocolate) on impulse while waiting in line to check out at Trader Joe's during the same shopping trip. (The Trader Joe's in Foggy Bottom has a single checkout line that feeds into all of the cash registers. The line moves fast but is often long, and the store has maximized the opportunity to encourage impulse buying by forcing shoppers to wait in line between shelves of enticing candy and nutrition bars on one side, and displays of pies and baked goods on the other.)
This is an easy recipe but it requires a little advance planning because you need to chill the dough before baking. You beat softened butter until creamy; add sugar and light brown sugar and beat until light; add ground coffee, vanilla, and an egg; mix in the dry ingredients (flour, baking soda, salt); and fold in milk chocolate chunks, walnuts, and chocolate-covered espresso beans (I used a 50-50 mixture by weight of whole espresso pillows and chopped chocolate-covered espresso beans). I chilled the dough for a few hours before scooping it out (I used a #30 scoop), flattening the cookies, and baking. I got 20 cookies from a batch.
If I have one criticism about these cookies it's that the texture was a little loose. By that, I mean that when you bite into a cookie, it tends to fall apart and creates a big mess if you don't happen to be using a plate. It's the sort of cookie that will get easily crumbled if you stick one in a Ziploc bag and throw it into your purse. Because I am almost always packing up my cookies and taking them somewhere -- including usually a ride on the subway -- I tend to prefer cookies that are sturdier. But that's a pretty minor quibble.
Recipe: "Espresso-Milk Chocolate Chunk Cookies" from Flavorful by Tish Boyle.
Previous Posts:
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