Molly Cookie

Chocolate Chip Cookies with Espresso and Cinnamon

Nov 4, 2010 Chocolate, Coffee, Cookies, Desserts, Food Things, Uncategorized

What you are seeing is a walnut mocha in cookie form. If there is not already such a thing as a walnut mocha someone should go ahead and invent that. But for now, instead of a walnut mocha, you can just eat one of these cookies.

I first made this recipe for Chocolate Chip Cookies with Espresso and Cinnamon about 5 years ago. I remember loving them immediately and for a long time I named them as my absolute favorite cookie. Every one of my favorite cookie recipes is some sort of chocolate chip cookie with the exception of  pinwheel cookies, but out of the chip cookies these are definitely in the top 3. The cinnamon flavor is powerful at first, but the coffee backs it up and takes over towards the end and you leave with a wonderful finish that reminds me of what it feels like to drink a mocha. It’s hard to explain. You’ll just have to try them for yourself.

When I made this batch I tried a trick my friend Grace told me that she uses when she makes chocolate chip cookies. She said that instead of scooping the dough and rolling it into balls, she barely pulls a small clump of dough out of the bowl, doesn’t form it, and sets it on the baking sheet with the absolute least amount of squishing that she can. She told me that if you do that, the cookies will be really light and soft (I love soft cookies). She told me this as I was eating some cookies she had made that were the softest, most wonderful chocolate chip cookies I had ever had. So, I decided to try the trick. I don’t know exactly why, but it really did work. The cookies were perfect little piles of soft wonderfulness.

This recipe is from a Bon Appetit from a really long time ago, and I’m not sure which one. I had this written down and I couldn’t find it anywhere online, so I really don’t know if this is the original recipe or if it’s modified, but I do know that the original source was Bon Appetit.

Chocolate Chip Cookies with Espresso and Cinnamon

Makes about 40 cookies

Ingredients

• 2 1/4 cups all purpose flour
• 1 tablespoon ground cinnamon
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 1/2 cups packed golden brown sugar
• 1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter at room temperature
• 1 large egg
• 4 teaspoons instant espresso powder
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 1 6 ounce package semisweet chocolate chips
• 1 6 ounce package milk chocolate chips
• 1 cup toasted walnuts chopped

Directions

Preheat oven to 350 F. Whisk together flour, cinnamon, baking soda, and salt in a medium sized bowl. Using an electric mixer, beat together sugar, butter, egg, espresso powder, and vanilla extract in a large bowl until well blended. Beat in dry ingredients. Stir in all chocolate chips and walnuts.

Spoon (or lift) dough in small clumps onto baking sheet, spacing about 2 inches apart. Bake cookies until brown on top but slightly soft to the touch, about 14 minutes. Cool on sheet for 2 minutes then transfer to a wire rack to cool. Eat alongside a cup of coffee. Mmm…