Kahlua Espresso Chocolate Chip Cookies

Kahlua Espresso Chocolate Chip Cookies - made dough January 24, 2015, modified slightly from Jenn's Food Journey

I need to do some virtual decluttering on my pinterest boards. I go through periods of wanting to either delete all the pins on my boards and start over or make them all so they’re not a constant reminder of the baking I intended to do at one point and still haven’t done. Some of the pins are so old and still unmade that the original link that the pin goes back to is no longer active or has moved and I’ve lost the recipe.

With that risk in mind, I’ve been turning my attention to some older pins that represent recipes I really want to try so I could at least capture them on my blog. I loved the chubby look of these because we know how I feel about the chubby – good on a cookie, not so good on me. I like the size and thickness of them in the original blog picture from Jenn's Food Journey so I thought I’d take a stab at them for myself, especially as I needed cookies for my next book club meeting. Easy to make the dough on a weekend then bake off the night before.

This was a good marriage of chocolate and espresso. The coffee taste wasn’t too pronounced but you could definitely taste it. Make sure you use a good dark cocoa so the chocolate can hold its own against the coffee which tends to be a dominant flavor. I used Pernigotti cocoa and it resided in perfect harmony with the espresso in this cookie. But alas, the Kahlua was a casualty as you can’t really taste it. Jenn's Food Journey had the same observation and I was tempted to up the Kahlua amount but ended up keeping it as is since I didn’t want the dough to have too much liquid and potentially spread more. As it was, it didn’t bake up quite as thick as the original blog. If hers was chubby, mine was slightly pudgy. Still, they tasted good and were decently thick enough. They also had a nice, soft, chewy texture the next day when I brought them in for my book club meeting.

2 2/3 cups all purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup cocoa
1/2 Tablespoon instant coffee (original recipe calls for espresso powder)
1 Tablespoon Kahlua
1 cup unsalted butter, room temperature
1 cup packed brown sugar
1/2 granulated sugar
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla
1-2 cups chocolate chips

1. In a bowl, whisk together the flour, baking soda, cinnamon, salt and cocoa; set aside.
2. In a small bowl or measuring cup, add the instant coffee and Kahlua; stir to combine.  Allow to sit and let the coffee granules dissolve.
3. In a bowl of a stand mixer with a paddle attachment, cream together the butter and both sugars until light and fluffy.  Scrape down the sides and add the eggs, one at a time, beating until just incorporated.  Add the vanilla and beat until just combined.  With mixer on low, slowly add in the dry ingredients until just combined.  Remove from stand mixer and fold in chocolate chips.
4. Portion into golf-ball-size dough balls and freeze for several hours or overnight. When ready to bake, preheat oven to 375 degrees F. Bake 8-10 minutes, or until slightly browned on the edges. Remove and allow to cool for 5 minutes.  Finish cooling completely on a wire rack.