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Friday, January 22, 2016

Coffee Almond Cookies



Two years ago, my friend Shenny, gave me a few pieces of cookies that she got from Hong Kong. They were tasty. She asked me if I will be able to crack the recipe. Well.... It's not an easy feat, not if we want to use natural coffee (instant is better than emulco, I guess) and avoid certain ingredients.

Because it's a replication.... it's not easy compared to baking anything I like or think of. It has to be something like it, look almost like it, taste almost like it.







It's a challenge. Sliced cookies tend to go out of shape, unless it contains a good amount of flour. But I also wanted to retain a good flavour of butter, so I won't want to use too much flour. The dough must be strong enough to hold the almonds without sliding down. Due to the use of instant coffee, of which is bitter, I had to use quite a lot of sugar as well, and sugar promotes spreading....Headache. If I will just resort to coffee emulco... then life is a lot easier. But what's life without challenges?


Finally after 4 attempts, I settle for one that doesn't spread too much but yet, still taste quite good. I won't say it's an exact replica, but it should be quite near. I only had 1 slice of that coffee almond cookie, so this is the best that I can remember of it. LOL

Although I made this 4 times, of which once was in 2015 and 3 times in 2016, the family didn't complain of having too much as they really enjoyed this cookie.



Coffee Almond Cookies

Recipe by WendyinKK

2 tsp Nescafé instant coffee
1 tsp boiling water
1 tsp vanilla extract

150gm salted butter
50gm brown sugar
1 egg (55g, grade C)

Sift together
200gm plain flour
50gm cornstarch
100gm icing sugar*

30gm full cream milk powder

100gm almond flakes, lightly crushed

1. Bring some water to boil. Put Nescafe into a small cup. When water has boiled, measure one tsp (5ml) and pour it onto the coffee granules. Stir to dissolve, add in vanilla extract.
2. Sift plain flour, cornstarch and icing sugar together. Then mix in full cream milk powder. Set aside.
3. Cream butter with brown sugar for about a minute on medium speed. Add in egg and beat until combined. Pour in the coffee mixture and beat until combined.
4. Add in flour mixture and mix until combined. Put in almond flakes and mix until combined.
5. Spoon the dough into a full lined 8 inch square pan. Press down the dough and cover with another piece of baking paper. Fold down the overlaps and apply some pressure to level the dough. To have an idea of how to line and wrap, see this picture
6. Chill for 2 to 3 hours.
7. Preheat oven to 160(fan)/180C. Line 2 large baking trays with non stick baking paper
8. Remove chilled dough from fridge and cut into 4 long bars. Cut each bar into 6-7mm thick slices.
9. Arrange the dough slices with some space allocated for expansion. Keep balance of dough in fridge if not baked immediately
10 Bake for 15-17 minutes or until the edges take some some colour.
11. Let the cookies cool down and store them in air tight containers.

*Update 12/3/2016: After keeping the cookies for 3-4 weeks, the sweetness seem to have intensified. I think the icing sugar can be reduced to 70 or 80g if you prefer it less sweet, and it will look more matte.







18 comments:

  1. Hi Wendy,

    Need some clarification from you. From the picture you attached for step 5, referring to picture 9, there seems to be some round item added to the first layer of dough, is it biscuit coz i can't seem to find it in the recipe that you provide.

    Thanks.
    Angie

    ReplyDelete
  2. Angie.
    The picture is to show the lining of the pan and how to fold it down

    ReplyDelete
  3. Hi Wendy, i love coffee flavour cookies very much! I m going to try your recipe soon! Thanks for sharing :)

    ReplyDelete
  4. Thank for your prompt reply. I think you misunderstood me. What i mean is that from the picture you provide for step no. 5, there are 16pcs of marie biscuit being laid in between the dough but when i refer to your recipe is was not stated biscuit as one of the ingredient. i went to the picture again to reconfirm and there are this round biscuit.

    Sorry to trouble you again for clarification.

    Thanks.
    Angie

    ReplyDelete
  5. Angie,
    That picture is from my Batik Cake recipe. I provided the picture to show how the wrapping is done. There is no Marie Biscuits in this recipe, but only in Batik Cake.

    http://wendyinkk.blogspot.my/2010/08/batik-cake-or-hedgehog-cake.html
    Hope this clarifies.
    I will edit my instructions.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Been wanting to try making this, but have never tasted it before (sounds yummy though). Would it be better to freeze the dough before slicing, maybe it won't go out of shape when baked?

    ReplyDelete
  7. Fern,
    You can try freezing for a while. Freezing it for too long will make the dough too hard to slice, and then one applies pressure and it will crack. I tried, it cracked, so I don't recommend it.
    But if you can freeze if you prefer it that way

    ReplyDelete
  8. Rosie,
    Then the dough will be much drier. It will still work, but a much firmer dough with a different mouthfeel

    ReplyDelete
  9. Hi Wendy,

    Thank you for your explanation, i understand now.

    Angie.

    ReplyDelete
  10. Hi Wendy, if I omit the milk powder as I am allergic to it, do I need to replace the 30g with other flour ? Your photos are beautiful. Thanks, Anna.

    ReplyDelete
  11. Anna Sim,
    You can either omit it (less rich outcome) or replace it with non dairy creamer like coffee mate.

    ReplyDelete
  12. Hi Wendy I tried baking the cookies today. It tasted good despite no milk. But the shape of the cookies are out of same, not as neat, they looked like melted ice cream or collapsed cake. Can you advise? Thanks

    ReplyDelete
  13. Just Kopi Kaki,
    Bake them as soon as you lay them out on the baking tray, while still cold.

    ReplyDelete
  14. Hello Wendy, thanks for sharing your experience. If I were to do it without coffee, do I need to increase the amount of butter etc?

    ReplyDelete

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