Pre-order by new cookbook, Zoë Bakes Cookies, now!
For those of you who have been visiting with me on Twitter, you already know that my day doesn’t begin until my first, or sometimes second, cup of coffee. It was a happy day for me when my local Costco started carrying Illy coffee. I first had this smooth, rich, deep cup of “liquid life” when I attended a pastry conference at the CIA in Napa Valley a few years ago. I was hooked, but it is awfully expensive and I rarely splurged. Now I can have it and not feel as though I’m exploiting my bank account. My Twitter friends are very vocal about their coffee preferences and say they like illy but prefer Caffe Kimbo and LavAzz. What is your favorite bean?
My 1st Anniversary of Zoe Bakes is coming up and I’ve ordered a special apron in honor of the event. I’ll be giving it away as soon as it arrives. One Year, how time flies!
Another staple in my diet is chocolate. So for me the perfect dessert has both coffee and chocolate. As evidenced by my past posts on Devil’s Food, Mocha Buttercream and other combinations of these two wonderful ingredients, I’m loyal to the pairing. Here is my most recent and current favorite, the mocha chip cookie.
I’ve used the basic recipe made famous by Jacques Torres and added cocoa and coffee to the mix. I usually make a big batch of the dough and freeze most of it in logs, think Pillsbury cookie dough. That way I always have some on hand when I need cookies NOW!
Torres + François Mocha Chip Cookie Recipe:
1 2/3 cups cake flour
1 2/3 cups bread flour
1/4 cup cocoa powder
1 1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1 1/2 teaspoons coarse salt
2 1/2 sticks (1 1/4 cup) unsalted butter (salted is fine)
1 1/4 cups (10 ounces) light brown sugar
1 cup plus 2 tablespoons (8 ounces) granulated sugar
2 teaspoons instant espresso powder (more if you like!) illy doesn’t make an instant powder that I am familiar with, so substitute your favorite powder.
2 large eggs
2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
11/4 pound bittersweet chocolate (or whatever combination of high quality chocolate you happen to have laying around your house. I used Valrhona 64% Cocoa, Dark Chocolate Bar, and Callebaut Chocolate.)
Preheat oven to 350 degrees (place rack in the middle of the oven. If baking two trays at once then be sure to rotate the cookies midway through baking so they bake evenly)
(Prepare a cookie sheet with parchment paper. This makes for easier clean up and the paper acts as a slight insulator form the pan and will not brown as much.)
Sift flours, cocoa, baking soda, baking powder and salt in a bowl, set aside.
Cream together butter, granulated sugar, brown sugar (make sure it is not dried out or too lumpy), espresso powder and vanilla extract in a large mixing bowl until very light in texture and color, about 5 minutes. (When I was a kid I made them by hand but now I use my stand mixer with the paddle attachment.)
Add the eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition.
Gradually beat in flour mixture. (mix the flour in only until combined.) Stir in chocolates.
Form the dough into logs on a strip of plastic wrap. Wrap well and refrigerate for about 24 hours. (If you can’t stand it, just bake them whenever you feel like it! We won’t tell Jacques.)
Slice the cold dough into equal discs and place onto baking sheet lined with parchment.
(Make sure your cookies are the same size so they will bake evenly. I always bake on parchment to eliminate the clean up of my pans.)
Bake for 9-12 minutes or until golden brown. (This is just about perfect timing if your oven is calibrated and you are only baking one sheet at a time. If you have two or more sheets going you must rotate them half way through baking so that they bake evenly. They may also require a minute or so more baking.) Cool on baking sheet for 2 minutes;
remove to wire racks to cool completely.
Serve with milk! Enjoy…
Intelligentsia, Ecco, or Stumptown coffees are completely amazing. They have a lot of single origin beans as well as decent blends. Additionally, Flying Goat coffee is one of the many great sites for ordering online.
Hi Sarah,
The bread flour gives the cookie structure and the cake flour makes it more tender. I have replaced the two with all-purpose and loved them!
Happy Baking! Zoë
Do you have to use bread flour with the cake flour? What does the bread flour add to it? Love this idea..
Zoe,
Just a quick question..are you and Joy the Baker trying to destroy my life? I seriously cannot take anymore delicious, comfy, beautiful blogs that make it impossible for me not to bake! Chocolate Chip Cookies are my thang. So now I have to pretend like I never saw this recipe…great!
BTW, I have a coffee problem too if you haven’t heard… particularly with the very best coffee in the world. See below for details.
http://sarahcentric.com/2008/08/25/let-there-be-graham-cracker-coffee/
Beatiful, tasty blog..keep it up!
-Sarah
Coffee and chocolate are a perfect dessert combination, and your cookies look fab. The Illy coffee sounds good, too! Must give it a try sometime.
Hi Carolyn,
You can somewhat determine that by how you bake them. If you bake them on a lower temp for longer they will be crispy. If you bake them at a higher temp for a shorter time so that the middle is not 100% set they will be soft.
How do you prefer them?
Thanks for the great question!
Zoë
Inquiring minds _ well, those of us who love chewy cookies anyways _ want to ask: Are these cookies chewy or more crispy in texture? 😉
Yummy cookies! I used to drink Illy, but these days I’ve been sticking to Australian products, like Tobys Estate and Danes.
Hi Patricia,
Thanks, they are tasty! I think I left you two messages on your last post, those cakes look so yummy!
Zoë
Zoë, these are too tempting for a cookie crazy like me! YUM!
Hi Eillen,
Your shortbread sound incredible! I’ll have to try the Dunn’s coffee mix you suggested!
Thanks, Zoë
I’ll have to try this recipe. I love this combination (I have chocolate chip espresso shortbread on my kitchen counter right now). I also need coffee first thing in the morning. I have been mixing Sumatra and Kenyan beans from Dunn Brothers in St. Paul for my morning cappuccino.
YUM! I would love these. I was reading your tweets about these over the weekend and they look every bit as good as they sounded.
Yummm! Can’t wait to try those big cookies! I love the mix of coffee and chocolate especially in a cookie form! thanks
I freeze cookie logs too. I’ve got a log of World Peace cookie dough in the fridge that I definitely need to bake off soon. Come to think of it, those cookies would be great with some coffee in them too.
Hi. Thanks for the great notes. Good luck finding your favorite coffees, when you do let me know where you ended up!
Enjoy the coffee and the cookies!
Zoë
Zoe…they look wonderful, I must try them…Have you been to the Illy factory in Italy yet? I read they have a coffee university there and they just started one in New York…it’s sounds right up your alley…Sue in Atlanta
After telling you about Kimbo, I realized that Amazon is no longer offering the deal I got last time! I started drinking it in Sicily and it’s not easy to find here so I’ll probably have to switch now. But Illy is really good and is luckily becoming available all over the place. I’m not a huge fan of LavAzza for some reason. Anyway, enough about coffee! Your cookies look absolutely wonderful! And congrats on a year of blogging, that’s a huge accomplishment! 🙂
I can’t wait to go see if my local Costco sells Illy. Love it! And the cookies-I will have to try them. Interesting combination of cake flour and bread flour.
Now, those are some serious cookies! Coffee and chocolate are my magic combination! I love that you can make them ahead too.
Hi Caitlin,
Yes, I was just in Chicago and went to Intelligentsia every morning for my fix. It is perfect in every way, except they weren’t open one of the mornings I was there and I panicked! 😉
Zoë
To be perfectly honest, I’ve never had Illy coffee. When I want a good coffee fix, I cough up the money for Intelligentsia coffee. Based in Chicago, and it’s the best coffee I’ve ever had. Amazing.
I’m with you on the illy, and have been tempted with their offer of an espresso machine for almost nothing if I agree to two lbs. a month. *sigh* So dark and rich…And the cookies look delicious. Not much more heavenly than mocha — especially with excellent ingredients.
This recipe sounds heavenly. I’ll have to try it soon.
“Doc”
Hi Doreen,
You can just leave out the coffee powder and just go 100% CHOCOLATE!
Enjoy! Zoë
I also love Illy, I first had it in Italy and was in love. Those mocha cookies are allready famous in twitter land! Love them!
Yumm… those look delicious! I’m another one who never acquired a taste for coffee – I love the smell of it though!
Thanks Indigo,
That is a very wise policy you have! 😉
Zoë
Congratulations on the upcoming blogiversary! These cookies look to die for, and I’m not even a big coffee fan… I abandon all my principles in the face of chocolate chips ^__^.