Espresso Chip Cookies

Yum

I have a deep and tempestuous love affair with chocolate.  I hear it calling my name, late at night . . . begging me for a late night rendezvous, alone, in the kitchen.  I find my mind constantly drifting during the day to memories of our late night affairs, with a silly grin on my face.  It’s an affair to remember.  An affair for the ages.

It was an affair to remember, that is, until I met another temptress so lovely . . . so tempting . . . so . . . irresistible . . . that I considered cheating on my long-time chocolate love and spending more time with this new love . . . coffee.  Ahh, the richness.  The vigor!  The flavor!  How could I turn my back on one true love for another?  Oh how to solve this infernal conundrum?!?

I’ll tell you how.  Marry the two.  And that’s how this recipe was born.

What are we waiting for?  Let’s do this!

Espresso Chip Cookies

Ingredients:

2 1/2 sticks butter or margarine, softened

1 cup white sugar

1 cup brown sugar

2 eggs, room temperature

1 tbsp. vanilla extract

3/4 cup cocoa powder

1 1/2 tsp. baking soda

3/4 tsp. salt

1 tbsp. espresso powder

2 1/4 packed cups all purpose flour

1 (10 oz.) bag dark chocolate chips

1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips

Extra dark chocolate chips for decorating the tops, optional

Directions:

Cream softened butter and sugars together until creamy.  Add in eggs and vanilla, scraping sides to ensure even mixing.  Add in cocoa, baking soda, salt, and espresso powder and mix well.  Mix in flour, scraping sides to make sure all the flour is mixed in.  Fold in chips and place cookies on a silpat-lined cookie sheet.  Bake at 350 degrees for 15-17 minutes, or until set.  Press extra chips into the warm cookies as soon as they come out of the oven, if you wish, and allow to cool for several minutes on the cookie sheet before removing to a cooling rack to finish cooling.

Now, in pictures! 🙂

If you’ve been listening to my rantings for any amount of time, you know my mantra for making amazing cookies.  Are you ready for my “cookie words to live by”?  Here we go . . . say it with me . . .

“Cold Ingredients are the Enemy of Good Cookies.”

Yep.  It’s true.  If your butter and eggs are cold, then your cookies are going to be a mess. If you let your ingredients sit out on the counter for 30 minutes or so before you start making your cookies, then you will have happy, smiling little treats.  You see, room temperature butter is more easily whipped, which means that air bubbles are more easily incorporated in there.  Which means . . . your cookies will be light and gorgeous and perfect.  You are oh so welcome.  If you’re trying to whip bubbles into your hubby to make him more perfect, well . . . you’re on your own with that one.  haha.

So go ahead and take your room temperature butter and whip it together with your sugars until the mixture is light and fluffy.  Yep.  You did it. You’re so smart.  I love working with you.

Add in your eggs and vanilla and mix those in.  I like to scrape the bowl halfway through (with the mixer stopped, obviously) to make sure that the batter on the sides of the bowl gets completely incorporated with the egg.

Now that the egg has joined the dance, go ahead and add in your cocoa, baking soda, salt, and espresso powder and mix well.

Uh, espresso wha???  Espresso powder (the kind I use is here) is like a magic ingredient when baking anything chocolate.  It helps the coffee and chocolate flavors dance a slow, sensuous tango to create drool-worthy baked goods.  A tsp. or so just enhances the chocolate flavor, without adding any “coffee” taste, but a tablespoon gives enough espresso flavor to make your eyes roll back in your head.  I keep this magic powder in the freezer after opening, and it lasts for months.  Absolutely no chocolate recipe should be without it.  Caffeinated baked goods.  Why didn’t I think of this sooner? Hehe.

Next, mix in your packed 2 1/4 cups of flour.  Each flour measures a little differently, so you may need to add a squidge more or less. You are looking for a stiff dough that can still be fairly easily stirred.

We need to stir BECAUSE we are about to add the best part– the chocolate, daaaahhhhling.  I used a whole bag of dark chocolate chips, and then another 1/2 bag (1 cup or so) of semi-sweet chips.  Stir in the loveliness.  Sample a few chips if you want.  And make sure you get the bowl afterward, because this stuff is good enough to fight your kids for bowl licking rights.  Yes.  It’s that good.

Use a cookie scoop (I used the black one here for these) to evenly portion your cookie dough onto a silpatlined baking sheet.  Cookie scoops and silpats are tools that no baker should be without, in my humble opinion.  They will take your cookies from good to “GREEEATTT!!!!”

Bake the cookies at 350 degrees for roughly 15-17 minutes, until the cookies are set and not gooey.  It can be hard to tell when dark cookies are finished baking, since you can’t tell when they are golden brown.  Personally, I found that my cookies took about 16 minutes to be nice and set, with the gooey tops gone.  When your cookies are finished baking, remove the baking sheets from the oven and immediately press a few extra chocolate chips into the tops of the cookies for decoration.  Allow the cookies to sit on the cookie sheets for a few more minutes before using a spatula or pancake turner to move them to a cooling rack to finish cooling, completely.

Of course, that “let these cookies cool completely” thing is complete nonsense, and we all know it.

I mean, who can resist a warm, fudgy cookie studded with dark chocolate chips?  You deserve to have one, fresh out of the oven, with a steaming cup of coffee.  Ahhhhh.  There just isn’t anything better than coffee and chocolate together.

Except maybe . . . if there were seconds? 😉

You did it. And I’m just so proud of you.

 

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