Who wouldn’t like a crisp and soft, deeply chocolatey cookie on a windswept October day? These are a version of some cookies I have made many times and recently I have taken to adding a little coffee, hence the mocha in the name. This coffee flavour isn’t hugely predominant (so don’t worry if you think your children might not like it) but there is a hint and as ever, coffee seems to boost the chocolate flavour. Perfect as a little treat but equally at home with ice cream for pudding. In all honesty I wouldn’t say no to one of these whatever the situation.
The dough is fairly soft and needs to sit in the fridge for an hour or so before you form the balls. The advantage of this is you can make it ahead and then only use as much dough as you need, the rest will sit happily in the fridge for several days.
The icing sugar makes a lovely marbled effect when it cooks so if you need something sweet for your little devils this Hallowe’en, make these and call them Spooky Cobweb Cookies.
Mocha Cookies
1 teaspoon instant coffee dissolved in 2 teaspoons boiling water
60g butter
175g plain chocolate
175g plain flour
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
2 eggs
140g caster sugar
40g icing sugar
Put the dissolved coffee, butter and chocolate in a bowl over a pan of barely simmering water and allow to melt then mix and set aside to cool a little. Whisk the eggs and sugar together until pale then add the cooled chocolate mixture followed by the flour, baking powder and a pinch of salt. Pour the mixture into a bowl and put in the fridge for an hour or so to firm up. Preheat the oven to 160 and put the icing sugar into a little bowl. Take teaspoonfuls of the mix and form into little balls, roll them in the icing sugar until well covered and place on a parchment lined baking sheet. Using the heel of your hand squash the ball, the sides will split a little but this is what you want. Bake for 12-14 minutes until firm at the edges. Cool for 5 minutes on the baking sheet before transferring to a cooling rack. Makes about 30.
These look delightful! My mouth is watering just looking at the pictures. Great job!
These look so tasty Anna! The powdered sugar on top looks so festive! I love the way they crinkle!
Thank you Kristi, they are so easy, the crinkling just happens in the oven!
I love coffee in my chocolate desserts. These cookies sound delicious.
Thanks Jenn!
All of your recipes look so delicious! Love the sound of these, fab photos too 🙂
Thank you Tash, very kind comments!
These look great Anna, I love the dusting of icing sugar on the top.
Thank you Karen!
These look lovely, not spooky to me at all. You make it sound so easy!
Thanks Genie!
What a fabulous idea for Halloween! I always love the idea of adding coffee … I’m sure that intensifies the chocolaty flavour beautifully!
Thank you Helen!
These cookies look fab and I bet they’re really chocolatey. GG
Thanks GG, they were indeed chocolatey and yummy!
Just going to hang out here and stare at these cookies because they are perfect looking! Major yummy here!
Hi Anna – these are the perfect cookies for today since it’s Halloween in the US. Chocolate and coffee go so well together so these sound like a lovely treat.
Thanks Geraldine!
My eldest demanded a plain sponge with dry icing ( aka icing sugar and sprinkles) for halloween so that is what we had.
Children have very specific ideas don’t they!
Lovely recipe, Anna. I love chocolate so one can never have enough chocolate cookie recipes in ones files! I noticed you have plain chocolate in your recipe. Is this cocoa powder? Thank you for this lovely recipe, Anna!
Hi Traci, no I use plain chocolate which is much the same as bittersweet or dark chocolate, the sort of stuff you can eat and around 60%. Hope this helps!
Awwwwh! I see. Thank you, Anna!