Kris
The cookie drought is over! Hallelujah!
I think my soul just missed baking. Now how dramatic is that?
Truth is, as much as I love cooking and throwing together meals for friends, baking has always been my first love. Which is a bit strange, I’ll admit–since I don’t really eat most of the things I bake. My sometime sweet tooth allows for me to taste whatever baked good I’ve made for quality-checking purposes, but I usually try to pawn all of my baking off on others (as my friends will attest). But certain cookies wiggle their way into my heart despite my best intentions… this is definitely one of them.
The original recipe actually uses olive oil and fresh rosemary for a savory-sweet twist; I chose to use Kona coffee because we recently returned from Hawaii with bags of the stuff! The basic recipe without my additions (powdered sugar, butter, salt and flour) make for an excellent basic shortbread recipe with which you can try other combinations with. In fact, I’m pretty sure you’ll see variations of this recipe on this site in the months to follow…
The consistency of these shortbread cookies is fantastic: light and crisp, with just a touch of vanilla sweetness. The small, coarse grounds of Kona coffee add texture and a very mild coffee bite; the glaze is strong but sweet, almost like coffee ice cream. I enjoyed these with coffee (obviously) but they go well with a nice hot cup of tea or by themselves!
If you don’t have vanilla beans, you can substitute 1 tsp. of vanilla extract; I know vanilla beans are expensive and not everybody has them lying around. Likewise, you can use any coarsely-ground coffee instead of Kona–just make sure the bean is a milder and less bitter variety. The roast should still be medium to dark, though. Lastly, the glaze–James and I are huge coffee fans, so I threw in the espresso powder to kick up the coffee flavor. If you don’t have it on-hand, you can make the glaze without and it will be fine–it’ll just be lighter in color.
And if this all looks like too much work for you, you’re in luck: Trader Joe’s has a version of this cookie (in fact, their cookie is what inspired me to make this in the first place). I like to think that mine is better, but you can be the judge on that if you’d like. 😉
Recipe adapted from The Blue Bottle Craft of Coffee: Growing, Roasting, and Drinking, with Recipes.
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Can I add macadamia nuts to this recipe and how much?
I have a question on how to make the glaze for these cookies. Your recipe does not specify if the glaze is prepared on the stove top or if the coffee added to the powdered sugar is the grounded coffee or prepared per instructions using a coffee maker. I would love to make these but need clarification on the glaze instructions. Thank you
Hi Gloria,
There is no need for a stovetop preparation for the glaze–just add liquid coffee to powdered sugar and stir! You can either use a coffee maker for the coffee or even instant coffee will do. Hope this helps, and let me know if you need any more clarification!
Hey Kris, just wanted to let you know that I found this recipe on Pinterest and made 2 batches today. They are WONDERFUL! I added an extra 1/2 Tbsp of coffee grounds to the cookies because I love me some coffee, and I ended up having to bake them for about 20 min total to get them to a nice golden edge (probably an issue with my oven), but otherwise this is an absolute winner of a recipe. And really pretty easy to make. Thanks for the great recipe, now to explore your others!
Anna, so sorry for the late reply! Thank you so much for sharing your results–I’m so glad you enjoyed the recipe! 🙂 Hopefully I’ll have more recipes upcoming in the following weeks, so stay tuned!
[…] Recipe from Kris at Umami Holiday […]
been looking for a recipe for these for a while! can’t wait to try it (: and i definitely get missing baking so much that it kind of hurts- went through a huge baking withdrawl last year because i didn’t have access to a kitchen, and i’ve been binge baking a lot recently.
[…] followed this recipe, for the shortbread dough, with a couple of changes: we used our 0 Dark 30 blend coffee, ground […]
Used 1.5tbsp ground coffee and also added half tsp of coffee extract.. the shortbread is delicious with or without the glaze 🙂
Can you freeze these cookies once they are baked?
I’m so grateful for your recipe because this is my favorite cookie from Trader Joe’s! Just made them today and they are great. I think I just need stronger coffee for the frosting.
This recipe has become the local favorite for all the parties. I made them once for a teacher appreciation event and the guests literally took extra and stashed them in their purses. I’m getting messages asking if I will make them again for the next event. I didn’t have fresh ground coffee or instant but I did have K-cups (don’t judge me). I added just under 2 K-cup pods of Colombian coffee to the dough and used the remaining coffee for the glaze. It’s finely ground enough to not be a big chunk of bean but you still see the flecks. I drizzled the glaze over the top so it wasn’t too sweet. Huge hit. thank you for the recipe.
I’m getting ready to cut my dough and am puzzled by the yield of 20 1″x2″ cookies from a 7″X10″ rectangle. I will improvise
I was horrified to learn that these cookies are discontinued from Trader Joe’s, which prompted me to look for a recipe on Pinterest! Thanks, I’ll try this one!
How thick should I roll out the dough? And it says to roll out 7×10 inch, that looks pretty think??
Hi Cathy!
To be honest, it’s been a minute since I’ve had the time to bake these… so in all likelihood, that measurement may be off. I do recall rolling the dough out to a quarter-inch thickness though… I hope that helps!
Kris