Decadent coffee cookie recipe (2024)

5 from 36 votes

These decadent coffee cookies are rich, delicately laced with coffee flavour and loaded with hefty chocolate chunks!

It's basically the grown-up, amped-up version of the humble, classic chocolate chip cookie.

But don't let their dark, mysterious persona scare you off, they are incredibly quick and easy to make. Enjoy them with a frothy cappuccino, or as a treat after dinner with espresso.

If you like coffee-flavoured recipes, you should definitely try our popular creamy 3-ingredient coffee mouse and this iced coffee with condensed milk!

What's to love about this recipe

• The combination of coffee and chocolate is a match made in heaven.

• This is an easy, simple, chocolate chip coffee cookies recipe and suitable for bakers at all levels.

• Swapping chocolate chips for big, bulky chocolate chunks takes these cookies to a whole new level. Try one straight from the oven for a mouthful of oozing hot chocolate!

• These cookies are luxurious, with a touch of sophistication. The perfect cookie to enjoy with an espresso.

• A gift box of these makes a great gift for coffee lovers.

How to make coffee cookies: Step-by-step

1. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper or silicone baking mats. Don't preheat the oven just yet.

2. Chop the slabs of chocolate into sizeable chunks.

   Top tip: To make the chopping process easier, try chopping the chocolate bar diagonally. This way, it will break naturally along the joins between each square, minimising the amount of chopping you have to do. It's a simple trick that saves you time and effort.

3. Make a few chops in the perpendicular direction to break up any excessively large pieces. This will ensure that the chocolate chunks are of a more uniform size. Set aside.

4. Put the butter in a microwave-safe, large bowl and heat it on low power until it melts and becomes liquid. Set aside to cool for about5 minutes.

5. Meanwhile, measure the light brown sugar, the white sugar and the instant coffee powder in a separate bowl.

6. Pour the melted butter into the bowl with the sugars and coffee.

7. With an electric hand mixer, or stand mixer (with paddle attachment, not whisk), beat for1 minuteuntil combined.

8. Add the vanilla extract, one whole egg and the eggyolk onlyfrom the second egg.

9. With the electric mixer, beat for4-5 minutesuntil the mixture is lighter in colour, thickened and creamy. If you are using a stand mixer, it might take less time to reach a light and creamy consistency.

10. In a separate medium bowl, combine the all-purpose flour and the bicarbonate of soda.

11. Add the dry ingredients in two parts to the wet ingredients, gently folding it in by hand with a spatula or wooden spoon. As soon as the flour mixture has been incorporated, stop mixing.

12. This is quite a thick dough, but don't worry, it will come together.

13. Tip in the chocolate chunks and combine until you have an even spread of chocolate throughout the dough. Do this gently and don't overmix.

14. Use an ice cream scoop or large spoon to measure out equal amounts of cookie dough.

15. Gently shape each portion into a ball and place it on the parchment-lined baking sheet. Leave enough space between the cookie dough balls to allow for spreading (about 8cm).

16. Place the baking trays with cookies in the fridge while you preheat the oven.

17. Preheat the oven to170℃/325℉/gas mark 3.

18. When the oven's ready, place the first baking tray on the middle rack of the preheated oven and bake for15-16 minutes, or until the cookies are light golden brown in colour with crispy edges.

    Repeat for any additional baking trays.

19. Allow the cookies to cool on their trays for 5-10 minutes before transferring them to a wire rack, or cooling rack.

20. Decorate the cookies with melted chocolate if you wish.

Top Tips for the Best Coffee Cookies

Don't overmix the dough

For best results, don't overmix the cookie mixture. Overmixing might lead to tougher cookies. Gently fold the ingredients together and stop as soon as everything has been incorporated.

Weigh your ingredients accurately

Using a kitchen scale to weigh out your ingredients will always give you more accurate results. If you haven't got a set of digital kitchen scales, add it to your Christmas list.

Don't flatten the cookies

Don't be tempted to press the dough balls flatter before putting them in the oven. The initial shape of the dough also contributes to the crispy outside and chewy middle.

Trust that the cookies will reach the perfect thickness by the time they are baked.

Not all ovens are alike

The age and brand of the oven you use may be slightly different to the oven we use. If by 15 minutes the cookies don't look done, give it an extra minute or two, but keep a close eye on it.

Keep in mind that the smaller the cookies, the less time they may need in the oven. Conversely, larger cookies might require a bit more time.

The 15-minute baking time is calculated for cookies of approximately 55g each.

Variations

• Swap half the chocolate with chopped-up pecan nuts.

• Add a pinch of spice to the flour, like cinnamon, ginger, cardamom or nutmeg.

• Dip half of each cookie in chocolate.

• Drizzle melted chocolate over each cookie and sprinkle with golden hundreds and thousands (see feature photo).

• Sprinkle lightly with cocoa nibs before baking.

• Sprinkle the tops with a few grains of sea salt.

The cookie sizes

We like to weigh out each dough ball to ensure all the cookies are the same size - This is not a requirement!

55g is a good weight for a standard-sized cookie and will yield circa 16 cookies from this recipe. You can make these into giant coffee cookies by doubling the weight to 100g per cookie.

If you don't feel like weighing the dough, you can simply eyeball it and shape the dough into balls based on your intuition.

Do coffee cookies have caffeine?

If you use caffeinated coffee granules, then yes. The amount will be negligible.

With this recipe yielding sixteen cookies and using six teaspoons of coffee (equivalent to two tablespoons), each cookie would only contain approximately 0.37 of a regular cup of coffee's caffeine content.

Alternatively, you can use decaf coffee - you really can't tell the difference, it's what we use.

Storage

These cookies have a good shelf life and can be stored in an airtight container for up to three weeks.

Can you freeze coffee cookies?

Yes! You can batch-bake them and store them in the freezer for up to 6 months.

Alternatively, you can freeze the dough before baking. Wrap it thoroughly in plastic wrap before placing it in the freezer.

To defrost, place the frozen cookie dough in the fridge overnight. The next day, roll into balls and bake following the same instructions as for the recipe.