Sunday, February 13, 2011

Cookie Buzz

Last weekend, I was in the mood to bake. So instead of sitting down to watch the Superbowl game, I ventured into the kitchen. The weather has been beautiful lately in davis and something about the 65 degrees, bright sun and the the cool breeze makes me want to open all the doors and windows in my house and bake. I think it's something about the smell of spring (I know it's not spring, but it sure smells like it in Davis) mixed with the smells of sugary treats wafting through my house that is drawing me to these sugar-filled recipes. I decided on a coffee sugar cookie recipe, but I left out the baking powder to make them into thin, crispy cookies. I'm so happy with that decision!

Coffee Sugar Thins
Adapted from i am baker

Ingredients:
1 cup butter softened
1 1/4 cups sugar
2 eggs
2 tablespoons freshly ground coffee
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 cups whole wheat flour
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon salt

Directions:
In a large bowl, cream the butter and sugar.
In a small bowl, combine the eggs, coffee grinds and vanilla.
In another bowl, combine the flour, cinnamon and salt.  
*Note: If you'd prefer these to not be crispy, you could add 1/2 teaspoon baking powder here like the original recipe that I adapted this from.
Slowly add the egg mixture to the butter mixture and combine. Slowly add the flour mixture until well combined.
Wrap the dough in plastic wrap and chill for at least a few hours.
Preheat the oven to 375.
On a well floured surface, roll out the dough (in sections) until nice and thin. Make sure to also flour the rolling pin. The dough is sticky and needs to be worked with quickly, while it's still cold. The scraps get too warm to work with again, so I re-chilled the scraps before I rolled them out again. Once the dough is rolled out, cut out your desired shapes and place on parchment paper or a silpat on top of a baking sheet..
Bake in the oven for 7-9 minutes. Pay close attention the last couple minutes and pull out right before they start to brown. Let sit for a few minutes on the baking sheet and then transfer to a cooling rack.


Look at all of those specks of coffee in there! This is a great study snack--sugar and caffeine to keep me awake! The crispiness of these cookies make them so satisfying to eat. And for someone who isn't a huge sweets fan, I could devour so many of these in one sitting. They're especially good dipped in a hot drink (coffee of course!) to bring out the coffee flavor.