I spent this past weekend at my folks' temporarily empty house on the coast of southern Massachusetts with a fire in the fireplace, five excellent human beings, and lots and lots of food. Sadly the weather wasn't so great, so after a gray walk on the beach, there really was just one way to spend the rest of Saturday afternoon: making cookies.
Dinelle, friend and frequenter of Brooklyn bakeries, opened my eyes to a peculiar but delicious espresso and sea salt cookie a couple weeks ago, and it inspired me to do something I'd never done before: make up my own cookie recipe. I don't bake much (I was abysmal at chemistry), so this was kind of an adventure. After doing some thinking and surveying what my mom had in her kitchen cupboards, I settled on a variation: espresso and ancho chilli.
Everything was going fine until I discovered that the dried ancho chillis I had weren't brittle enough to be finely ground. Since larger chunks of chillis didn't really mesh with my idea for the cookies, I ended up changing them out for ground cayenne. I think I liked these results better, anyway.
The cookies are very chewy, and it turns out that the heat that creeps up at the end of each bite is perfectly offset with some cool, creamy vanilla ice cream. Yeah, you might know where I'm going with this...
Ice cream sandwiches! And now that there's a solid chance it'll break 65 here in Brooklyn tomorrow, I feel fully justified in thinking ahead to summer eating.
Espresso Cayenne Cookie Sandwiches
Makes roughly 2 dozen
2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/4 tsp. baking soda
3/4 tsp. salt
3/4 tsp. ground cayenne pepper
1/3 cup instant espresso
1/4 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup water
2 sticks butter, at room temperature
1 cup extra fine sugar
1/2 tsp. almond extract
2 eggs
1 quart (2 pints) vanilla ice cream
In
a medium bowl, combine flour, baking soda, salt, and cayenne pepper.
Mix thoroughly. In a small saucepan, stir together instant espresso,
brown sugar, and water over low heat until sugar is dissolved. Be
careful not to boil. Remove from heat and set aside. In a large mixing
bowl, beat butter, extra fine sugar, and almond extract until creamy.
Reduce speed and add eggs, beating until incorporated. Keeping the
mixer running, slowly pour in the coffee mixture. Once thoroughly
mixed, begin adding dry ingredients roughly 1/4 cup at a time.
Chill finished dough for at least one hour. When you are ready to
bake, preheat oven to 350 degrees. Space heaping tablespoons of dough
roughly 1 1/2 inches apart on your cookie sheet and bake for 9 to 11
minutes.
To make sandwiches, allow cookies to cool to room temperature. Scoop about 1/3 cup softened ice cream onto one and spread evenly. Top off with a second cookie and enjoy right away!
Note: Though the amount in each cookie is only equivalent to roughly one sip of an espresso, these cookies are caffeinated. If you are pregnant or can't otherwise consume caffeine, switch the instant espresso to decaffeinated.
Some time ago, I really needed to buy a house for my business but I did not have enough money and could not buy something. Thank goodness my colleague suggested to try to take the business loans at reliable bank. Thence, I did that and used to be happy with my student loan.
Posted by: HayesREBA | July 18, 2011 at 02:40 AM