Today’s Flavorful Friday Post is coming to you from…..drumroll please…..the ultra-fabulous Jennifer Taglione! Jennifer is the owner of Stiletto Sports and The Pink Bubble World and is the self-proclaimed Top Chef Diva of her own kitchen.
When Mike first told me about his idea to start experimenting and reviewing coffee recipes, I was a bit skeptical. He’s not the type to spend all day watching The Next Food Network Star or Top Chef (unlike myself!). But his Coffee Burgers were delish!
And, after much cajoling, he has finally convinced me to reveal my top secret choco-coffee cookie recipe that has been in my family for almost 20 years. But I said I would only reveal the recipe if I got to tell the story behind it too because, well, I’m Italian; it’s what we do! If you can’t wait and must have the recipe right now, click here to skip my sweet childhood tale.
The Story Behind My (in)Famous Cookies
Growing up in a large, multi-marriage Italian family, Christmas was a huge event. One year, my mom thought it would be the best idea ever if we made our own Christmas cookies.
Now, let me back up just a moment to tell you a little bit about my mother. She was an amazing cook! But was she a baker? Not even a little bit. Nor am I. Love to cook, hate to bake. (Oddly enough, my dad is actually the gifted baker. His lemon meringue pies are to die for!)
So anyway, back to the story…. she had the brilliant idea that we (the non-baker and the junior high kid) would bake the cookies this year! At a book sale at work she had picked up some cookbook compiled by lots of old Italian ladies who named their dishes “Italian Chicken IV” or “Italian Cookies II.” Apparently the Italian Cookies II and Italian Chocolate Wedding Cookies sounded yummy because that’s what we went with.
We mixed up the dough for both the Italian Cookies II and the Italian Chocolate Wedding Cookies and start to roll them into balls. And roll. And roll. Oh. My. God.
Go read the title of the cookies again: Italian Chocolate Wedding Cookies. They weren’t lying. The recipe made enough to feed a wedding! Something like 12 dozen cookies. And the Italian Cookies II made 9 dozen. That’s 21 dozen cookies, or 252 little rolled balls. And, being baking novices, we had no idea that we should have let the dough sit overnight because it was a sticky, gooey mess. It took hours!
The moral of that story is that when I tell you “cut this recipe in half, at least” I’m not kidding! Oddly enough, that was the only year the cookies baked into actual little round balls. Every year since they have flattened out.
The Cookie Recipe
If you are looking for a coffee-flavored cookie or something that tastes like coffee ice cream (ew), these are not for you! These are actually really cool because when you bake the coffee and chocolate together, a sort of science-experiement happens. The ingredients transform each other. The coffee makes the chocolate Über-rich and decadent. The chocolate, on the other hand, somehow mellows out the coffee and removes the bitterness.
The cookies are very moist, dense and like I said, decadent. But somehow they are rich and chocolatey without being sickly sweet or overpowering.
- Taste: ?????
- Skill: Easy…….. but very sticky.
- Serves: Um. Makes 12 dozen cookies. But I could eat them all. So serves 1.
- Time: baking = 10 minutes but you really should chill the dough overnight to make it easier to roll.
Ingredients
Cookie Batter: Click here to cut the recipe in half!
- 2 Cups Sugar
- 2 Cups very strong coffee (hot)
- 4 cups Flour
- 1 1/2 Cup Crisco
- 1 1/4 Cup Cocoa
- 1/4 cup Baking Powder
- 1 teaspoon cinnamon
- 2 Teaspoons Vanilla
- Pinch of Salt
- Optional Add-ins: Nuts, White or Dark Chocolate Chips or *Swirled White & Dark! (*Highly recommend!)
Glaze & Toppings
- 1 box confectioners sugar
- 1/2 cups Hot water (probably will need more water)
- Mix sugar with water to make glaze to your desired thickness!
- Optional toppings: coconut, nuts, sprinkles, powdered sugar
To Make Cookies:
- Melt the Crisco in a glass bowl. Then add the warm coffee, sugar, and vanilla and set aside.
- In a large bowl, mix Flour, Cocoa, Salt, Baking Powder, Cinnamon.
- Slowly add the wet ingredients from Step 1 into dry ingredients of Step 2 and mix well.
- Dough will be sticky!!! Let stand at least 15 min! Original recipe says that. I let mine sit at least a day. Sometimes two.
- Stir in optional add-ins (I like to make several different kinds so I separate the dough into a few bowls)
- Roll dough into small balls (if dough is sticky, this is a pain. Flouring hands can help) If you have a melon scooper, this is the time to use it!
- Bake at 375 degrees for 10 minutes
- Move to cooling rack & Glaze/Top while hot!
- Eat them!
- 1 Cup Sugar
- 1 Cup Strong Coffee
- 2 cups flour
- 3/4 Cups Crisco
- a little less than 3/4 Cocoa
- 1/8 cup Baking Powder
- 1/2 tsp cinnamon
- 1 tsp vanilla
- pinch of salt
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