These rich and chocolatey coffee cookies are a bold and decadent dessert filled with delicious flavor in every bite. This chewy and indulgent treat pairs wonderfully with a cup of coffee to help you double down on the dreamy flavors that will keep you coming back for more!
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📖 Are coffee cookies high in caffeine?
No, while coffee cookies taste like coffee, they are not high in caffeine. These espresso chocolate cookies only have 2 tablespoons / 10 grams of espresso powder in the batter. This lends a delicious coffee flavor to the entire batch, but when divided out, it only amounts to 1 gram of espresso powder per cookie.
🌟 Why this is the best Coffee cookies recipe
- It's quick and easy- There's no long list of ingredients or steps, which makes this coffee cookies recipe easy. This is a very straightforward recipe that anybody can make, regardless of their cooking skill level.
- Rich coffee flavor - These are the best coffee cookies recipe. A wonderful flavor comes through from the espresso powder, as does a fantastic nutty aroma. Enjoying these cookies and coffee on the side is a coffee lover's dream.
- No special baking equipment - There are no extra hoops to jump through. This simple espresso chocolate chip cookies recipe can be made with the simple baking equipment already in your home!
- Detailed, thorough recipe – My step-by-step instructions and photos show you how to make coffee cookies in an easy-to-follow way. Add in the tips and tricks, and you're working with a foolproof recipe. This is the best recipe for coffee cookies and the most detailed too so you will make them perfectly!
📝 Ingredient notes
- Unsalted butter - Always use unsalted butter in your baking recipes. Room temperature butter is necessary to make creaming the butter and sugar easier.
- Brown sugar - Brown sugar has a lovely and complex depth of flavor. This pairs wonderfully with the coffee flavor in these chocolate chip coffee cookies, making for a rich and delightful bite. Light brown sugar or dark brown sugar is just fine for this easy coffee cookies recipe.
- Granulated sugar - Granulated sugar delivers the perfect amount of sweetness to this espresso cookie recipe and offsets the bitterness of the espresso powder.
- Egg - The egg helps support the shape and structure of the cookies. Learn more about the role of eggs with my eggs in baking guide.
- All purpose flour - Flour gives these chocolate chip espresso cookies their structure. Carefully measure the flour to avoid an overly dense cookie!
- Espresso powder - Espresso powder gives these cookies their bold coffee flavor. If you like coffee desserts, make sure to try my espresso brownies as well!
- Salt - Salt helps to offset the sweetness in baking recipes.
- Baking soda - Baking soda helps give these cookies their rise and texture. If you don't have any on hand, be sure to check out my baking soda substitute guide.
- Chocolate chips - Use semi-sweet chocolate chips for this recipe. I recommend a high-quality brand such as Callebaut.
Check out some of my other coffee desserts as well!
🛒 You’ll find detailed measurements for all ingredients in the printable version of the Recipe Card at the bottom of this post
👩🍳 How to make this recipe
1. Step-by-step process of making cookies with coffee
These espresso chocolate chip cookies are very straightforward to make, but you'll need to be careful not to overmix or overbake them for the best results.
- In a large mixing bowl, cream the butter and sugars with an electric hand mixer until pale and fluffy. Then, add the egg, mixing just until combined.
- Combine the flour, espresso powder, salt, and baking soda. Fold the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients using a rubber spatula.
- Fold in the chocolate chips. Reserve a couple of tablespoons of chocolate chips so you can place more on top later.
- Prepare 2 baking sheets with parchment paper and divide the dough into 10 equal balls using a digital scale or a cookie scooper. Place them onto the parchment paper, leaving enough space between them to spread. Bake 5 cookies per baking sheet.
- Chill the espresso chocolate chip cookie dough in the fridge for one hour.
- Preheat the oven to 175 C / 347°F (no fan). Bake them for 10 minutes, place more chocolate chips on top, and bake for an additional 5 minutes cook time.
- Remove the chocolate cookies from the oven and allow them to rest for a few minutes before transferring them to a cooling rack.
- Sprinkle the cookies with flaky sea salt and serve slightly warm.
💡 Top Tip: This cookie dough must chill before baking if you want to avoid flat cookies. Instead of refrigerating it for one hour, try freezing it for 15-20 minutes.
✨ Flavor variations & Substitutions
There are lots of ways you can personalize these chewy chocolate espresso cookies!
Chopped nuts add flavor and texture to cookies. Try this recipe with toasted pecans, like in my Pecan Chocolate Chip Cookies.
Some coffee cookies recipes use browned butter to give them a more complex and caramelized flavor, like in my Brown Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies.
Vanilla flavor is a wonderful complement to coffee flavor. Try adding a splash of vanilla extract to your cookie dough. And if you're an extreme coffee lover, you'll love these cookies made with coffee drizzled with the coffee glaze from my Cardamom Cake.
To use instant coffee powder or instant coffee granules instead of instant espresso powder, substitute at a 1:1 ratio. However, keep in mind that coffee cookies with coffee grounds will not taste as strong.
Ingredients can also be swapped to accommodate dietary restrictions from gluten free to dairy free. Check out my flour guide and sugar guide to see how you can exchange these common baking ingredients for ingredients that better fit your lifestyle. Additionally, I have an egg substitution guide and butter substitutes that you can reference for swaps.
🎓 Expert tips
- Chill the cookie dough. If the cookies were spreading too much (they should not if you chill them before baking and measured the ingredients correctly), learn how to save them in this article of mine about flat cookies.
- Don't be afraid to slightly under bake your cookies. They will continue to cook and set as they cool, so taking them out a bit early is the best way to ensure they'll come out as soft and chewy coffee cookies. If you do forget them in the oven, don't worry. Here's what to do with burnt cookies.
- After creaming the butter and sugar together, switch to a rubber spatula to avoid overmixing the cookie dough.
- For perfectly shaped cookies, use a large cookie cutter or any round object slightly larger than the size of your cookies. Once you take the cookies out of the oven, hold the cookie cutter over each cookie and make circular movements around them to encourage your cookies to set in a perfectly round shape.
🥣 Equipment Notes
Using a digital scale is the only way to be positive you're measuring your ingredients correctly. Accurate measurements of flour and sugar, are essential to the success of cookies.
An electric hand mixer helps you cream together butter and sugar, but partway through, you'll want to swap out for a rubber spatula to avoid over mixing.
Ensure your oven's displayed temperature is accurate by using a digital oven thermometer. Baking dishes at the correct temperature ensures the recipes come out the way they were intended.
A cooling rack will keep the bottoms from continuing to cook outside of the oven and allow cooling air to circulate around the cookies.
❓Recipe FAQs
This coffee cookie recipe can be stored in an airtight container or jar for 2-3 days at room temperature. To reheat, you can microwave them for 10 seconds before serving. Storing cookies is very similar to storing brownies.
Freeze the cookie dough balls by placing them onto a baking sheet in the freezer for one hour to get them firm. You can then transfer them into a sealable plastic bag and freeze. To bake frozen cookie dough, you can thaw it at room temperature for half an hour or place it right into your preheated oven.
These cookies are best enjoyed freshly baked, but you can freeze them. Place the baked cookies in a sealable bag and store them in the freezer for up to one month. Before serving, you can thaw them at room temperature or pop them in the microwave or oven to warm them up.
No, espresso powder is made from espresso beans that are ground, dried, and ground again into a fine, concentrated powder. Ground coffee is made from dried and roasted coffee beans that are ground once. Some coffee cookie recipes call for ground coffee, but espresso powder gives a better flavor.
Espresso powder intensifies the chocolate flavor and, in larger amounts, adds a delicious coffee taste to your treats. Whether your dessert is mainly chocolate or simply contains chopped dark chocolate chunks, a small amount of espresso can bring it to the next level.
🍪 More Cookie recipes
Have you tried this recipe?
Please leave a 5-star ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ rating on the recipe card and consider leaving a comment as well! I would love to hear about how your dessert turned out and your feedback also helps other Readers!
Coffee Cookies
Ingredients
- 140 g (⅔ cups) Unsalted butter room temperature
- 120 (½ cups) Brown sugar
- 50 g (¼ cups) Granulated sugar
- 1 Egg
- 200 g (1½ cups) All purpose flour
- 10 g (2 tablespoons) Espresso powder
- 1 Teaspoon Salt
- 1 Teaspoon Baking soda
- 150 g (⅘ cups) Chocolate chips semi-sweet high quality chocolate eg. Callebaut
US customary cup measurement is an indicative figure only. Measure the ingredients with a digital scale by weight (gram). Baking is art but also science which requires precision and accuracy.
Instructions
- Mix in the egg, just until combined
- Mix flour, espresso powder, salt, and baking soda together then add this mixture to the wet ingredients and fold with the help of a Rubber spatula just until combined. Do not overmix
- Fold in chocolate chips. Leave some for later so you can place more chocolate chips on top of the half baked cookies
- Prepare 2 baking pans with parchment papers
- Divide the dough into 10 equal balls (using a Digital scale is handy) and place them onto the parchment papers leaving enough space between them to spread. I recommend baking 5 cookies at once
- Do not soften the surface of the balls, in fact, try to keep it as rough as possible for a nice, crackly surface. Press some more chocolate chips on the surface of the cookies
- Let cookie dough rest in the fridge for an hour
- Pre-heat oven to 175 C / 347°F (no fan)
- After 1h chilling time, bake the cookies for 15 minutes in the following way: Bake for 10 minutes then place more chocolate chips on top, then bake them for further 5 minutes.
- Let the cookies rest for a few minutes, then carefully remove them from the parchment and let them cool on a Cooling rack. Sprinkle with sea salt
- Serve them while they are slightly warm
- The cookies will further set as they cool. Store at room temp for a few days in air tight jar or container.
Notes
- Measure your ingredients with a Digital scale for accuracy
- Use room temp. ingredients eg. egg and butter
- Use espresso powder that has a fine powder like texture. Alternatively, use instant coffee (without sugar or milk powder) but you might need to adjust the quantity to your taste. Do not use liquid coffee as that would mess up the texture of the cookies.
- Make sure you read my Expert tips section above to maximize your success. A short recipe alone is not able to cover all the necessary details, and science behind baking.
- Respect the chilling time in the recipe, do not skip it or the cookies might end up very flat
- Try not to overbake your cookies if you prefer them fudgey and gooey
Lynn
These cookies are incredible. They are chocolate chip cookies with the wonderful taste of coffee built in. My husband had 3 and said they were great cookies. He usually doesn't say anything. I do have to say they aren't the easiest cookies I have ever made. Measuring in grams with my scale was a pain especially with the flour and when time to fold the flour mix into the eggs it was very difficult for me. I couldn't use a spatula, I needed a large wooden spoon. The dough is very stiff. All in all I'd have to say it was worth it, they are heaven in a cookie!