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.