Triple chocolate espresso cookies

Coffee lovers rejoice! Here's a cookie that will give you a strong coffee flavor inside a deep chocolate cookie. Add to that it's crunchy bits of crushed chocolate covered espresso beans you have an eye-popping treat likely to keep you awake through the end of a slow and dreary work day (or while playing tea party with the kids).

Adapted from a recipe in The Cookie Book, by Rebecca Firth, these cookies are definitely treats for the older crowd. If you'll have little ones clamoring for cookies, make some other flavor for them. These contain a hit of caffeine that you won't want to give your littles!

This recipe requires cold brewed coffee. We used double strength espresso powder to make the coffee portion. You can use cold brew concentrate or double-strong coffee. You can use regular coffee, but you won't get the coffee flavor.

Chilling the dough is not required, but it makes the dough much easier to handle and we think the cookies are better after chilling a couple of hours. Makes about 3 dozen cookies. Keep at room temperature for several days. Dough and cookies can also be frozen for up to a month.
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ingredients

• 8 Tablespoons (115g) unsalted butter, room temperature
• 1-1/2 cups (330g) light brown sugar, packed
• 1/2 cup (96g) granulated sugar
• 2 large eggs, room temperature
• 1 egg yolk, room temperature
• 1/2 cup (118ml) neutral flavor oil
• 2 Tablespoons (30ml) double strong espresso or cold brew concentrate, room temperature
• 1 Tablespoon (15ml) vanilla extract
• 1-1/2 cups (204g) all-purpose flour
• 1 cup (136g) bread flour
• 2/3 cup (56g) unsweetened dark (Dutch process) cocoa powder
• 1-1/2 teaspoons (7g) sea salt
• 1-1/2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1-1/2 cups (180g) white chocolate chips
• 1 cup (120g) dark chocolate, coarsely chopped or chunks
• 1 cup (161g) chocolate covered espresso beans, crushed and/or coarsely chopped

instructions

1. Brew 1/4 cup (60ml) ​of extra-strong coffee. Set aside to cool.
2. Heat oven to 350F  (177C) and cover two or more baking sheets with parchment or silicone liners.
3. In medium bowl, whisk together the flours, cocoa, salt, and baking powder and soda. Set aside.
4. In your stand mixer, fitted with SideSwipe or your flat beater, cream butter and both sugars until light and fluffy (begin on lower speed, then increase speed to medium-high).
5. On lowest speed, add eggs and yolk one at a time, making sure the first is blended before adding the rest. Add in the oil, coffee and vanilla and mix on low to medium speed until incorporated, about 30 seconds to 1 minute.
6. Add the dry ingredients to the butter mixture all at once. On your mixer's lowest speed, mix just until moistened and combined. Don't overmix - a few streaks of flour mixture are ok.
7. Add in the white and dark chocolate and espresso beans and stir only until they are distributed through the dough. Again, don't overmix - this will toughen your cookies. The dough will be sticky. You can form the cookies now and bake, but we recommend you chill the dough for a couple of hours. This makes them easier to form and improves the taste.
8. Roll approximately 1-1/2 Tablespoons (20g) of dough into balls and set on the prepared baking sheets, leaving about 2 inches (5cm) of space between dough balls. Put the side that has the most visible chocolate pieces facing upward for the pretties cookies.
9. Bake one sheet at a time on the center rack of your oven for 9-11 minutes. They are done when they firm up on the edges. If you want to reduce the puff on the cookies, bang the sheet on the counter a couple of times to flatten.
10. Let the cookies cool on the sheet for about 5 minutes before transferring to a rack to cool completely.