Chocolate Espresso Thumbprint Cookies

These chocolate espresso thumbprint cookies are good cookie. Very, very, very good cookie.

This recipe is a Half Baked Harvest creation, from Tieghan’s Christmas cookie boxes last year.

Making these a bit of an imposter in our European cookie box but we just had to have them. It just ain’t a cookie box until it’s got a chocolate based biscuit going on.

The gold leaf is certainly an extravagance but hey, it’s Christmas!

25 mins | makes 36 | easy street

Ingredients

225g butter
225g golden granulated sugar
1 egg
2 tsp vanilla extract
1 tbsp instant espresso powder
300g plain flour
75g cocoa powder
1 ½ tsp table salt
ganache:
225g dark chocolate
80ml double cream
1 tsp vanilla extract
2 tsp instant espresso powder

Method

Get the oven up to 180°C and line a couple of a baking trays with greaseproof paper.
Cream the butter and sugar together until light and fluffy. Add the egg, vanilla, and coffee powder and beat until incorporated. Add the flour, cocoa powder, and salt, mixing until just combined.

Roll pieces of the dough into balls about the same size as a large walnut and place 3cm apart on yer baking trays. Using your thumb, press gently in the centre of each to create an indentation.

Transfer to the oven and bake, rotating halfway through, until cookies are just set, about 7-8 minutes. If the indentations lose their definition, gently press the centres in again with the end of a wooden spoon. Cool slightly on baking sheet and then transfer cookies to a wire rack to cool completely.

Once cool, melt the chocolate together with the cream in a bowl over simmering water. Stir in the vanilla and coffee powder until dissolved. Spoon the ganache into the centre of each cookie. Decorate with gold leaf, or as you wish.

Keep cookies stored in an airtight container for up to 10 days.