A tale of two cookies

Mocha Cookies
From Red Dirt Mummy

150g butter, softened I forget, I think that was about 2/3 cup
3/4 cup (165g) firmly packed brown sugar
1 egg yolk
2 teaspoons instant coffee granules
1 tablespoon hot water
1 1/2 cups (225g) plain flour
1 tablespoon cocoa powder
20 dark chocolate Melts

1. Preheat oven to 180 degrees Celsius (about 350 degrees F). Grease and line two oven trays with baking paper.
2. Beat butter, sugar, egg yolk and combined coffee and water in small bowl with electric mixer until smooth. Transfer mixture to large bowl; stir in sifted flour and cocoa in two batches, Knead dough on floured surface until smooth.
3. Roll level tablespoons of mixture into balls; place 5cm apart on trays, flatten slightly. Press 1 chocolate Melt into centre of each cookie; bake about 12 minutes (mine took closer to 15-20 minutes). Cool cookies on tray.
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These Mocha Cookies come from Red Dirt Mummy. Oddly enough, she doesn't care for coffee flavored sweets yet she liked these yet I love coffee and coffee flavored sweets and I didn't care for these. The problem was not the recipe but the espresso powder that I used which was too strong (and not very good actually) and I shouldn't have used as much or used that particular powder at all. I loved the texture, the look and the ease of these cookies and I'm going to try the recipe again someday.

So I put that recipe aside since I didn't have a different coffee powder on hand and I decided to use the rest of the melts in place of the chocolate filling in this recipe:



Chocolate Thumbprints
Martha Stewart’s Cookies Copyright 2008

12 tablespoons (1 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter
1/2 cup confectioners' sugar
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
4 ounces semisweet chocolate, chopped
1 1/2 teaspoons light corn syrupI used candy melts instead of the chocolate filling

1. Heat oven to 350 degrees. In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat together 1 stick butter, sugar, salt, and vanilla on medium-high speed until smooth, about 2 minutes. Beat in flour, beginning on low speed and increasing to medium high.
2. Roll dough by teaspoonfuls into balls, and place 1 inch apart on an ungreased baking sheet. I stuck the melts in at this point. Bake for 10 minutes, remove from oven, and press thumb into tops of cookies to make indentations. Return to oven, and bake until light brown on the edges, 7 to 9 minutes more. Remove to a wire rack to cool.
3. Combine chocolate, 4 tablespoons butter, and corn syrup in a small heat-proof bowl. Set over a pot of simmering water; stir occasionally until melted and smooth. Allow to cool slightly. When cookies are cool, fill the thumbprints with the chocolate mixture.
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While these cookies were sort of pretty, they were difficult to work with (the dough is very dry) and they didn't thrill me. I'm not a huge shortbread fan. I might have liked them better with the chocolate filling since I used to love Stella D'oro Swiss Fudge Cookies.

Okay that's it for the holiday posts. This year I made:

Mocha Cookies

Chocolate Thumbprints

Fruit and Cheese Bread

Snickerdoodles
Welsh Cookies
Sugar Cookies
Elfin Bites
Gingerbread Men
Five Minute Fudge (with mini marshmallows)
Chocolate Dipped Caramels
Oreo Truffles
Peppermint Bark
Rum Balls
Chocolate Chip Brownies
Spritz Trees
Raspberry and Apricot Kisses (my favorite this year - I LOVE these cookies)

I felt as if I could have kept on baking and baking if I hadn't run out of time. I think holiday baking might be a form of escapism for me around the holidays. I was very pleased with everything besides these two recipes I posted today. If I had tested the mocha cookies ahead of time, I would have been adjusted the recipe and been pleased with those as well. It's really not the best idea to be trying new recipes when I was in the middle of so much baking and in a time crunch.

I'd like to wish everyone a Happy New Year and hopefully things will be a bit lighter around here while we recover from the holiday excesses.