These cookies were inspired by a tin of shortbread cookies from Jenny Bakery in Hong Kong that I had the pleasure of trying from my boyfriends aunt. These shortbreads were very strong in coffee flavour and they had been piped into little rosette/flower shapes and boyyyyyyyyy, they were addicting. I wanted to recreate a homemade version and something that was quick and easy to satisfy those coffee cookie cravings.
After a few rounds of recipe testing, I realized that what I was really aiming for was that STRONG coffee flavour and shortbread texture. Shortbread cookies have shortness gluten strands, which gives them that crumbly, melt-in-your-mouth feel.
The first few batches I left out the cocoa, but I kept feeling like something was missing. The cookie would have a soft coffee flavour, but it wasn’t rich or deep enough in flavour for me. Since most people add coffee to bring out chocolate flavour I decided to try and add cocoa to bring out the coffee flavour and it worked out perfectly. I also had to do a couple tests on flour since I wanted that really short texture. I used a portion of rice flour the first few times since there is no gluten in rice flour. This would make a great gluten-free version and something I could possibly experiment more on later hehe. Then I switched over to cornstarch because I know cornstarch has that drying property and also contains no gluten. So I used flour and cornstarch as my dry ingredients.
Anyways after all that recipe testing I came to this recipe. Check it out! These cookies are way too addicting, you’ve been warned.
Edit: I have revisited these cookies and tweaked the recipe a little bit, and now they are exactly like Jenny Bakery cookies *drool*. I removed the cornstarch completely and stuck to cake flour, and baked these for 20 min instead of 15.
Coffee Chocolate Shortbread Cookies
This recipe makes about 30 cookies.
Ingredients
227g (1 cup) soft butter
60g (1/2 cup) icing sugar
300g (2-1/2 cups) cake flour
12g (2 tbsp) cocoa powder
10g (2 tbsp) instant coffee (I used decaf so I could munch on these any time of the day)
5g (1 tsp) hot water to dissolve the instant coffee
5g (1 tsp) vanilla extract
2g (1/2 tsp) salt
Method
- Dissolve the instant coffee with hot water to create the coffee extract and set aside.
- In a stand mixer or large bowl, using a paddle attachment or hand mixer, cream the soft butter and icing sugar until smooth and lump-free. Do not over-beat to avoid creating air bubbles.
- In a separate bowl, sift and whisk together the flour, cocoa powder, and salt. Set aside.
- Add the coffee mixture and vanilla to the butter and cream just until incorporated fully.
- Add the dry ingredients all at once and mix on low speed just until it is fully incorporated. Try your best not to work the batter too much but the batter should be completely combined and very stiff.
- Using a piping bag with a Wilton 1B flower tip, pipe the cookie batter onto a tray lined with parchment paper, using a drop-piping technique. Warning: this batter is stiff so push with all the strength you have!!
- Place the tray in the fridge to chill while preheating your oven to 350F/180C, about 10 min.
- Bake the cookies for 20 min or until slightly darker on the edges. I cut one of the smaller cookies in half after about 15 min to check if it was still dark (wet) in the centre.
- Let cool and enjoy!
Feel free to check out the tutorial here!
ally bakes 
Very nicely done Allysa! I love coffee in desserts. I know the frustration of having to re-make your own cookie recipe multiple times before you get it right. Great work on putting in that extra time on your pipework. It gave the cookies an awesome presentation (:
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Ohhhhh yes, it’s definitely a frustrating process, but SO worth it in the end! I’m also not complaining too much because extra cookies aren’t really a bad thing haha, thank you so much!:)
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Hello! I think you forgot to put the measurement of cornstarch.
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Hello! I ended up revisiting my recipe and tweaking it again to remove cornstarch and only use cake flour, happy baking!
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