Table of Contents

• The Midnight Rain Cupcake: Explained
• Making the Mud Cupcakes
  • Mud Cakes and Moisture 101
  • Tips for Making the Two Batters Simultaneously
  • Adding Both Batters to the Cupcake Cases
  • Baking the Cupcakes
• Caramelised White Chocolate
• Chocolate Peppermint Buttercream
  • Melted Chocolate and Buttercream 101
• Making the Peppermint Buttercream Base
• Dividing the Buttercream
• Decorating the Cupcakes
• Recipe

The Midnight Rain Cupcake: Explained

The Midnight Rain Cupcake is comprised of 5 main elements:

• Chocolate mud cake
• White chocolate and caramel mud cake
• Dark chocolate and peppermint buttercream
• Caramelised white chocolate and peppermint buttercream
• Gold sprinkles

As I mentioned, developing this cupcake took me a super long time. Midnight Rain has such a specific aesthetic that I really wanted to capture in my cupcake, but just couldn’t figure out how. I tried SO many ideas, from chocolate suns/moons to two-tone icing- I even gave edible raindrops a whirl, but nothing was giving me the right vibe. After many, many attempts and redesigns and trial batches, I finally landed on a cupcake that not only tastes great, but also captures that iconic, Midnight Rain look/feel, from the decoration right down to the cakes themselves.

One of the most famous lyrics from the song is the first line of the chorus: ‘He was sunshine, I was midnight rain‘. I desperately wanted this cupcake to reflect that line and have a real sense of duality and contrast about it. The song also contains a reference to ‘peppermint candy’, so I also wanted to incorporate that flavour into the bake. My favourite peppermint-y, holiday treat is Peppermint Bark, which, by nature, includes a sharp contrast between the milk/dark (that one’s up to personal preference!) and white chocolate, so I thought it would serve as a perfect inspiration for these cupcakes.

I decided to do a half-and-half cupcake, with one half made from a regular chocolate mud cake batter, and the other half from a white chocolate mud cake batter. I had my heart SET on using mud cakes for this recipe, because it just felt so fitting, I mean, mud is literally caused by rain, right? Mud cakes were something I’d heard about, but never actually made myself. They’re essentially dense, moist chocolate cakes that are often used for celebration cakes, because they are sturdy enough to withhold the added weight of additional tiers and moist enough to make in advance. After a bit of research, it seems that mud cakes originated in Mississippi, where they were topped with marshmallows (to resemble the rocky banks of the Mississippi River), then made their way over to the other side of the pond, where the Australians did away with the marshmallows and really ran with the idea of a super moist, dense and chocolatey cake. The history is a little patchy, but I’m all for a delicious chocolate cake recipe. However, developing the recipes for the mud cake batter took me SO LONG! It was definitely the trickiest part of these cupcakes for me, but after many attempts, I think I’ve finally cracked it (thank GOODNESS).

For the icing, I used both dark chocolate and white chocolate buttercream, which I flavoured with peppermint, to really bring the whole peppermint bark theme together. The only problem with this was the colours. As I mentioned, Midnight Rain, has a super defined aesthetic- if you look it up on Pinterest, you’ll be flooded with half-yellow/gold, half-navy blue artwork. As suspicious as I am of the idea of making my food navy, I felt it kind of had to be done for this cupcake. I opted to colour the dark chocolate buttercream navy, in an attempt to limit the amount of food colouring I needed. Admittedly, in some lights, the icing looks more black than navy, and I had to use a lot more food colouring than I would have liked, but I did my best! For the ‘sunshine’ side, I wanted my white chocolate buttercream to be just a little bit more golden. It occurred to me that I could just use caramelised white chocolate, which would give my buttercream a naturally deeper tint (and cut down on the food colouring). It’s not anything crazy, but it is noticeable (and, honestly, even more tasty than regular white chocolate buttercream!).

I went back and forth on how to decorate the cupcakes- initially, I planned to do a two-tone swirl, but I wasn’t loving how the two buttercreams were melding together as I piped. In the end, I decided to use two decorative piping tips to create a pretty dollop of the white chocolate buttercream (to resemble the sun) and a ribbon of the navy buttercream, going back and forth in a crescent shape around that sun (to resemble the moon). I finished it off with some golden star sprinkles on the crescent shape, to really drive home the whole celestial, midnight vibe. Honestly, I’m SO happy with how it turned out! This style of icing, with the use of different colour buttercreams, each piped with a different decorative piping tip, is really on trend at the moment, so it was fun to try it out myself.

Once I’d decided on using caramelised white chocolate in the buttercream, I began to consider introducing that same caramel-y taste and colour into the white chocolate cake batter as well. With a little bit of research and some fiddling around with my hard-earned mud cake recipe, I managed to develop an equally moist, almost sticky toffee pudding-esque recipe for a white chocolate and caramel mud cake. It’s kind of my magnum opus.

Phwoof. That was a lot of waffling. Essentially, these are just peppermint bark-inspired mud cupcakes, with some added caramel flavour, for good measure. Both the cake and the icing is two-toned to emphasise the whole sunshine/midnight contrast from the song. As always, if you don’t particularly care about making your cupcake super Swift-y, you can decorate these cupcakes in whatever way you would like, which will make them a lot easier to make (and a lot less navy).

Making the Mud Cupcakes

As I mentioned before, I was desperate to use mud cakes for this recipe and it was absolutely only because I thought it was an iconic idea. However, every single mud cake I tried to make ended up drier than a typical sponge cake, which seemed completely contradictory to me. After many (many) attempts, I finally developed a super moist, super chocolatey mud cake recipe. A few more attempts later and I had a super moist white chocolate and caramel mud cake recipe as well, so I was ready to go.

Mud Cakes and Moisture 101

Here’s what I did to keep these cakes SUPER moist and delicious:

• Used half-butter, half-oil:

While butter gives cakes great flavour, oil keeps them much moister. By using both, you get the best of both worlds!

• Used half-caster sugar, half-brown sugar:

Brown sugar is another ingredient that helps to make cakes moist, so I’ve included it (in some form) in both of the recipes. However, you need to use a some caster sugar in order to give your cakes some structure- I found that 50/50 was the best ratio!

• Added sour cream

A lot of cake batters will include a thicker dairy product like yoghurt, buttermilk or sour cream to help provide extra moisture to the finished cake. I found that neither buttermilk nor yoghurt did enough for these cakes- you really need the extra moisture provided by the higher fat content of the sour cream to make these cupcakes super moist and delicious.

• Baked the cupcakes at a lower temperature

These cupcakes are baked at 160°C, which is quite low, especially for cupcakes! The reason for this is that a lower, slower bake is more conducive to a moist and tender finished product. You also want to ensure that you do not over-bake these cakes, or they will dry out- bake the cupcakes just until they feel firm to the touch and spring back ever so slightly.

Tips for Making the Two Batters Simultaneously

For these cupcakes, the two mud cake batters are added to the cupcake liners simultaneously and baked together for that half-and-half look. Because of this, it’s important to make the batters at the same time, because cake batters have a tendency to get tough if they are left sitting too long before baking. This can seem a little overwhelming, but, if you follow the steps below, you’ll be absolutely fine!

• Melt the chocolate/butter mixtures together one after the other, then allow to cool.

Both batters start off by melting the chocolate and butter together, in two separate bowls (one for the white chocolate + butter mixture, one for the dark chocolate + butter mixture). I do this in the microwave, one at a time, in 1-minute bursts (on the lowest setting), stirring in between until melted and cohesive. You could also do this over a bain-marie, if you prefer. Because the mixtures need to cool a little before the next step anyway, you can do one after the other without a problem- just remember to use a different spoon/spatula for each batter, to avoid cross-contamination! Once both mixtures are melted and smooth, set the bowls aside to cool.

• While the mixtures are cooling, measure out your wet ingredients.

Because both batters contain the same wet ingredients (bar one- more on that later), you can measure them all together. Whisk together the oil, milk, eggs, sour cream and vanilla, until completely combined, then set aside. When it’s time to add them to the batters, you just need to add half of your wet ingredient mixture to one bowl, half to the other. I like to mix my wet ingredients together in a jug, to make that step even easier.

• Add the sugars to each bowl.

To the dark chocolate mixture, add caster sugar and light brown soft sugar. To the white chocolate mixture, add caster sugar and dark brown soft sugar (the dark brown sugar is what gives the white chocolate mud cake its caramel-y flavour!). Because white chocolate has a higher proportion of sugar in it already, we add less sugar to that mixture at this stage than we do to the dark chocolate mixture, so everything balances out!

• Add the wet ingredients.

Now it’s time to add half of the wet ingredients to the white chocolate mixture, and half to the dark. I find it easiest to pour a little in to each bowl to start with and mix it well to loosen the mixture, then add the rest. If you’re worried about dividing it equally, weigh your wet ingredient mixture first, then divide the value by 2 and add that amount to each bowl.

• Add the coffee to the dark chocolate mixture.

The coffee (instant granules dissolved in water) is the only wet ingredient that needs to be added separately, because it is only needed in the dark chocolate batter. The coffee helps to bring out the flavour of the dark chocolate, but will overpower the flavour of the white chocolate, so you only want to add it to the dark chocolate batter. Add the coffee to the dark chocolate bowl and mix well to incorporate.

• Sift in the dry ingredients.

To the white chocolate batter, just sift in the self-raising flour and the salt. To the dark chocolate batter, sift in the self-raising flour, salt AND cocoa powder (for even more chocolate flavour).

Mix until just incorporated, then both batters are ready to go into the cases and be baked!

Adding Both Batters to the Cupcake Cases

For these two-tone cupcakes, you want to keep each batter to one side of each case. The easiest way to do this is to add both batters simultaneously, so they push up against each other and form a natural barrier. The batter isn’t super liquid, but it’s also not crazy thick, so an easy way to do this is to transfer each batter to a jug and ‘pour’ the batters into the cases. I say ‘pour’, because the batter is thicker than a typical pouring batter would be (it needs to be, to prevent the batters from merging too much!), but it will still come out of a spout- if that makes sense? If you prefer, you could also just take a spoonful of each batter and tip them into the cases at the same time- it’s just a little more finicky!

Fill each case about 3/4 of the way full- these mud cakes don’t rise quite as much as normal cupcakes, so you can afford to fill them a little higher than you normally would!

As always, I like to match my cupcake cases to my theme, so I used these navy blue cases from The Cake Decorating Co. for these Midnight Rain Cupcakes!

Baking the Cupcakes

As I mentioned, mud cakes are best baked low and slow. For that reason, you want to bake these cupcakes at 160°C (conventional oven) for 25-30 minutes, until just done. Don’t over-bake the cakes, or you might lose some moisture! Wait until the cupcakes just about spring back, then remove them from the oven.

As always, I like to remove my cupcakes from the tin as soon as they come out of the oven, to prevent the bottoms from becoming greasy. Do watch your fingers though, because both the cupcakes and the tray will be very hot!

Caramelised White Chocolate

Before you can make the buttercream, you’ll need to caramelise some white chocolate. This is super easy to do, but it can take a little while, so you’ll need to be a bit patient- I swear, it will be worth it! Caramelised white chocolate has a much deeper, more complex flavour than regular white chocolate- the caramelisation process helps to temper some of the sickly sweetness of the white chocolate, so you can just enjoy the flavour.

I caramelised my white chocolate in the microwave, but there are plenty of tutorials online for doing it in the oven as well, if you prefer. In this post, I’ll be walking you through the microwave method.

To start with, you need to melt the chocolate. Break or chop it up into pieces, then place the chocolate into a microwaveable bowl. Microwave on the lowest setting in 1-minute bursts, stirring in between each burst, until completely melted.

Now, to caramelise the chocolate. Essentially, all you need to do is microwave the melted chocolate on high, in 15 second bursts at a time, stirring in between each burst. I never melt chocolate on high because it can burn so easily, but, because the bursts are so short for this, you don’t need to worry about the high heat. In fact, doing this on a lower heat will just make it even more tedious, so be brave and stick to high!

This process takes… a while. I must admit, I was getting pretty bored by the end, but, having tasted the finished product, I would absolutely do it again! At first, the chocolate won’t seem like it’s doing anything, but eventually it will start to thicken up. Don’t worry- this is supposed to happen! Any clumps/thicker parts will melt back into the chocolate as you stir in between each burst, so just keep stirring and heating, stirring and heating.

Eventually, you’ll start to notice the colour of the chocolate changing. It will go from the original pale, creamy colour to a light caramel shade. Keep going until the chocolate is a nice, deep caramel shade (or until you absolutely cannot be bothered with it anymore). Honestly, I could have taken my chocolate even further and achieved a deeper shade, but I was getting super tired at this point, so I just went with what I had… Once you’re happy with the level of caramelisation, set the chocolate aside to cool for a while before you make the buttercream.

One note here: this stuff gets HOT. I mean, you’d think it would be obvious given the fact that it’s literally called caramelised white chocolate, but I was still shocked by just how hot it was when I got a little bit on my finger. Keep your fingers well away until the chocolate has had a while (at least 20-30 minutes) to cool down!

Chocolate Peppermint Buttercream

For the icing, I made one big batch of peppermint buttercream. I then transferred about 1/3 of the buttercream to a separate bowl, before adding melted dark chocolate and navy food colouring to the larger amount and caramelised white chocolate to the smaller amount.

Melted Chocolate and Buttercream 101

Making buttercream with melted chocolate is super easy, but there are a couple of things you need to remember:

• Use a higher proportion of butter than your typical buttercream recipe.

Because chocolate sets solid at room temperature, you’ll end up with a super dense and hard, fudge-like consistency if you add it to a standard buttercream recipe. To account for this, you need to use a higher proportion of butter than usual, which will help to even out the consistency. In fact, the chocolate you use will also have an effect on this: dark chocolate contains cocoa solids, while white chocolate does not (and instead contains a higher proportion of cocoa butter). This means that dark chocolate will firm up the buttercream even more than white chocolate. The quantities I have listed below reflect all of this- I add less dark chocolate than white chocolate to the buttercream base, so you’ll end up with super silky, super tasty chocolate buttercream!

• Make sure the melted chocolate has cooled down before you add it to the buttercream base.

This is particularly important for the caramelised white chocolate, because it starts out so hot and therefore needs longer to cool down. If the chocolate is still warm, it will melt the butter in your buttercream, which might lead to the icing becoming soupy, or even separating. If this happens, it’s not the end of the world- just put the whole thing into the fridge, giving it a stir every 5 minutes or so, until it comes back to a cohesive, pipeable consistency.

Making the Peppermint Buttercream Base

As I mentioned, this buttercream base contains a much higher proportion of butter than my usual American buttercream recipe, to account for the addition of melted chocolate later. Don’t worry, then, if you taste this and feel overwhelmed by butteriness- it’s supposed to be that way!

American-style buttercream is one of the easiest icings to make- start by whipping the softened butter with an electric mixer until it is soft and pale. I use a hand mixer, but you could use a stand mixer, if you prefer. Then, mix in the sifted icing sugar, followed by the milk, and beat again until light and fluffy. That’s it!

To get the peppermint flavour into this icing, I used peppermint extract. Add a few drops to the buttercream, then give it a taste to see if the flavour is to your liking. Peppermint extract is very strong, so you only need a very small amount. Start slow- you can always add more, but you can’t take it out if it starts tasting a bit too toothpaste-y!

Dividing the Buttercream

Once you have your peppermint buttercream base, it’s time to divide it up, ready for the melted chocolate. Because of the way we will be decorating the cakes, you need more dark chocolate buttercream than white chocolate. Take about 1/3 of the buttercream base and transfer it to another bowl- this will be for your white chocolate buttercream. Add the cooled, caramelised white chocolate to the bowl and mix well until completely combined. To the other bowl, add melted and cooled dark chocolate (I do this in the microwave, in 1-minute bursts, on low), and mix well to combine.

The next step is optional, but I wanted to colour my dark chocolate buttercream so that it was more reminiscent of the Midnight Rain aesthetic I was going for. I used the Colour Mill oil-based food colouring in the shade Navy, but, honestly, the finished buttercream ended up looking more black, probably because of the cocoa powder. No matter, it was still very much giving night sky vibes, so I was happy! One thing to note though: I did have to use quite a bit of food colouring to achieve this shade. If you’re not comfortable using so much colouring, you can either omit it completely, or add a small amount of cocoa powder (you could even use black cocoa, if you have it), dissolved in hot water, to your buttercream first. This will make the buttercream darker naturally, so you will need less colouring.

Decorating the Cupcakes

With both buttercreams made, it was time to pipe it onto the cupcakes. I placed the white chocolate buttercream into a piping bag, fitted with a large open star tip, and put the navy buttercream into a piping bag, fitted with a large petal tip.

I started by piping a dollop of white chocolate buttercream to one side of the cake. Keep it round, so that it ends up kind of resembling the sun- the decorative piping tip will make the dollop look a little more fancy. For aesthetic reasons, I opted to pipe the white chocolate buttercream on the side with the white chocolate cake, but I think the cupcakes would be even tastier if I had switched the orientation of the buttercream around- that way, the more bitter cake would have the sweeter icing and vice versa. It’s up to you, though!

Then, I switched over to the navy buttercream with the petal piping tip. Hold the piping bag perpendicular to the surface of the cake, with the thicker end of the petal shape nearest to the cake and the thinner end pointing up in the air.

Keep the bag in this position the whole time you are piping, so that you achieve upright ribbons. The aim is to pipe one continuous ribbon, back and forth, and form a crescent shape around that sun ‘dollop’ we just created. Start at one end, applying gentle pressure, then work back and forth, increasing the width of the ruffles as you approach the middle of the crescent. Once you’ve reached the centre, gradually decrease the width of the ruffles, working your way around the sun to finish off the moon shape.

And there you have it! A sun and moon, in buttercream form.

To finish off the cakes, I opted to scatter some gold star sprinkles over the navy moon buttercream, just to really heighten the whole midnight vibe. I got these sprinkles from Waitrose, but you can use whatever you have/can find!

And that’s it! My Midnight Rain, peppermint bark-inspired cupcakes. I hope you’ve enjoyed reading about this process- let me know if you give this recipe a try!

Gemma

Recipe

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‘Midnight Rain’ Cupcakes

Inspired by Taylor Swift's song 'Midnight Rain', these half-and-half cupcakes are made with two mud cake batters: dark chocolate and white chocolate & caramel, then topped with two types of peppermint buttercream: dark chocolate and caramelised white chocolate, so they're perfect for everyone, whether you're sunshine or midnight rain.

Course Dessert, Snack

Keyword Caramelised white chocolate, Dark Chocolate, Midnight Rain, Mud cake, Peppermint, Taylor Swift, Taylor Swift Cupcakes, White Chocolate

Prep Time 2 hours hours

Cook Time 30 minutes minutes

Total Time 2 hours hours 30 minutes minutes

Servings 12 cupcakes

Equipment

• 12 navy blue cupcake cases (see Note 1).
• 2 piping bags
• 1 large open star piping tip
• 1 large petal tip

Ingredients

For the mud cake batters:

• 75 g dark chocolate, roughly chopped.
• 75 g white chocolate, roughly chopped.
• 90 g unsalted butter, split into 2x45g portions.
• 50 g caster sugar, split into 1x30g and 1x20g portions.
• 30 g light brown soft sugar
• 20 g dark brown soft sugar
• 90 g sunflower oil (or other flavourless oil).
• 75 ml milk
• 3 eggs
• 100 ml sour cream
• 1/4 tsp vanilla extract
• 1/4 tsp instant coffee granules, dissolved in 3 tbsp hot water.
• 190 g self-raising flour, split into 1x90g and 1x100g portions.
• 10 g cocoa powder
• fine sea salt

For the peppermint buttercreams:

• 70 g white chocolate, roughly chopped.
• 30 g dark chocolate, roughly chopped.
• 290 g unsalted butter, softened.
• 320 g icing sugar, sifted.
• 3 tbsp milk
• peppermint extract
• navy food colouring (see Note 2).

To decorate:

• golden star sprinkles (see Note 3).

Instructions

Make and bake both mud cake batters:

• Preheat the oven to 160°C (conventional oven). Line a 12-hole cupcake tin with navy cupcake cases and set aside.
• Place the dark chocolate and one of the 45g portions of butter into a medium-sized microwaveable bowl. Melt in the microwave on the lowest setting, in 1-minute bursts, stirring between each burst, until smooth. Repeat this process with the white chocolate and the remaining 45g of butter, in a separate bowl. Set both bowls aside to cool slightly.
• Once cooled, add the 30g portion of caster sugar and all of the light brown soft sugar to the dark chocolate mixture. Stir well to combine. Add the remaining 20g portion of caster sugar and all of the dark brown soft sugar to the white chocolate mixture. Stir well to combine.
• In a large jug, whisk together the oil, milk, eggs, sour cream and vanilla extract. Add half of this mixture to each bowl and mix well to combine (see Note 4).
• Add the coffee, dissolved in the hot water, to the dark chocolate mixture and mix to combine.
• Sift the 90g portion of self-raising flour into the dark chocolate mixture, along with the cocoa powder and a pinch of salt. Then, sift the remaining 100g of self-raising flour and another pinch of salt into the white chocolate mixture. Stir both mixtures separately, until the dry ingredients are just incorporated.
• Transfer each batter to a separate jug, then pour both batters simultaneously into each cupcake case, to give the half-and-half effect. Fill each case about 3/4 of the way full, then bake in the preheated oven for 25-30 minutes, until they just about spring back when touched.
• Once baked, remove the cupcakes from the tin immediately, to prevent the cases from becoming greasy. Place onto a wire rack and set aside to cool completely before decorating.

Make the peppermint buttercreams:

• Start by caramelising the white chocolate. Place the chocolate into a microwaveable bowl, then melt in the microwave on low heat, in 1-minute bursts, stirring between each burst, until smooth.
• Once melted, start caramelising the chocolate. Place the chocolate back into the microwave on high heat, in 15-second bursts, stirring between each burst, until the chocolate has turned a deep, golden colour. This will take a little while, so be patient.
• Once you are happy with the level of caramelisation, set the chocolate aside to cool. It will be very hot! While it is cooling, melt the dark chocolate in a separate bowl and set aside to cool as well.
• Once both chocolates have cooled to room temperature, make the peppermint buttercream. Place the softened butter into a large bowl and beat with an electric mixer until pale and soft. Mix in the icing sugar, followed by the milk, then beat again until light and fluffy.
• Add a few drops of peppermint extract to the buttercream and mix well to combine. Taste and add more extract, if desired.
• Add 1/3 of the buttercream to the cooled, caramelised white chocolate and mix until completely combined. Add the remaining buttercream to the melted dark chocolate and mix until completely combined. Add navy food colouring to the dark chocolate buttercream until your desired shade is achieved (see Note 2).

Decorate the cupcakes:

• Transfer the white chocolate buttercream to a piping bag fitted with a large, open star tip. Transfer the dark chocolate buttercream to a piping bag fitted with a large petal tip.
• Pipe a large, circular dollop of white chocolate buttercream, to one side on the surface of a cooled cupcake. Switch to the dark chocolate buttercream and, holding the bag so that the thicker end of the petal tip sits against the surface of the cupcake, pipe a ribbon back and forth, forming a crescent shape around the white chocolate dollop. Repeat this process for the remaining cupcakes.
• To finish, scatter a few golden sprinkles onto the navy buttercream crescents.
• Store the cupcakes in an airtight container, at room temperature. Stored like this, they will keep for 3-4 days.

Notes

1. Navy cupcake cases: I used these.
2. Food colouring: I used the Colour Mill Oil-Based Food Colouring in the shade Navy. However, I had a couple of problems with this: my icing ended up more black than navy (probably because of the dark chocolate) and I had to use quite a lot of food colouring. Feel free to use a different shade of blue colouring, add some dissolved cocoa powder to the icing base to make it even darker (so you need less colouring) or omit the colouring altogether. 
3. Golden star sprinkles: I used these sprinkles from Waitrose.
4. Dividing wet ingredients: If you are worried about dividing the wet ingredients evenly, weigh the mixture, then divide that value by 2. Simply add this amount to each bowl for a perfect division. I find it easiest to mix a small amount of the wet ingredients into each bowl first, to loosen the mixtures, then add in the rest. 

And welcome to the second instalment in my new Baking Around the World series! This time, we’re heading to Germany for another festive cookie recipe.

Mandelhörnchen have become somewhat of a fixation of mine since I first learned about them last year. I can’t even remember how I came across them, but I was obsessed with making them. Unfortunately, no matter what recipe I tried, I just couldn’t get my cookies to look like the ones pictured- the majority turned out flat and crispy (not the vibe). Some recipes called for shop-bought marzipan, some called for homemade almond paste- I tried them all. I was confused and, after several unsuccessful and frustrating attempts, I rage quit my mandelhörnchen quest and gave up on my almond dreams.

But! The story does not end there! Though I had given up on my mandelhörnchen dreams, they stayed with me. I could not forget them. So, when I bought myself a new Christmas cookbook full of German recipes (Advent by Anja Dunk), I allowed myself to hope. In fact, one of the first photos that comes up in the reviews of the book on Amazon is of some homemade mandelhörnchen! My hope grew (3 sizes, just like the Grinch’s heart). As soon as I got the book (and read it cover to cover, obviously), I tried the mandelhörnchen recipe. They worked! They used shop-bought marzipan! They were magnificent!

I did make some small adjustments to the recipe (just to the chocolate/bake time/overall quantity of cookies, so I’m hoping the cookies are still authentic?), but, like with my last Baking Around the World post, the idea/recipe for these cookies is not original to me at all- I’m just trying them out to widen my baking horizons and sharing the process with you! You can read more about my disclaimers for this series on that last post.

Table of Contents

• Mandelhörnchen: Explained
• Ingredients
• Making Mandelhörnchen
• Final Thoughts
• Recipe
• Sources Used

Mandelhörnchen: Explained

Mandelhörnchen (‘Almond Horns’ in German), are known by a variety of names in English- in my research, I’ve come across them referred to as ‘almond and marzipan crescents’, ‘chocolate-dipped almond horns’ and ‘almond paste cookies’, to name a few. They are essentially a chewy, flourless almond cookie, bent into a crescent/horn shape, rolled in flaked almonds and once baked, the ends are dipped in dark chocolate. I mean… yes please. Mandelhörnchen are a year-round treat in Germany, but are particular favourites at Christmastime.

Ingredients

• Marzipan

Traditionally, mandelhörnchen recipes use marzipanrohmasse– an almond paste that is slightly different to the typical marzipan you would find in the store. It’s not easily accessible here in the UK though, so I was delighted that Dunk’s recipe was specially-formulated for the use of marzipan instead. I used shop-bought white marzipan (though apparently golden marzipan gives a nicer colour- I’ll have to give it a try!) and it worked perfectly. This makes baking these mandelhörnchen SO much quicker and easier.

• Ground almonds

There is no flour in this recipe, just ground almonds- which makes the cookies naturally gluten-free!

• Icing sugar

Unlike the pizzicotti from the last post, which used caster sugar, these mandelhörnchen use icing sugar, which makes for a softer, smoother and stickier (but that is unfortunately necessary) dough.

• Egg whites

You don’t need the yolks, so you can save them for another recipe.

• Flaked almonds

You roll each cookie ‘log’ in flaked almonds before baking, which makes the cookies extra tasty and extra pretty.

• Dark chocolate

For dipping the ends of the horns in. The original recipe uses coconut oil to thin out the chocolate and make this easier, but I prefer the taste of the chocolate by itself. Dipping the horns is customary, but you can leave them plain to make this recipe even quicker and easier, if you prefer.

Many mandelhörnchen recipes also include almond extract, but Dunk’s does not- honestly, I didn’t even miss it! The ground almonds in the dough and flaked almonds on the outside of each cookie make these so deliciously almond-y, as Dunk says, there’s really no need for the extract.

Making Mandelhörnchen

First up, you need to preheat your oven to 150°C. This is a lower temperature than most cookies, but it’s perfect for obtaining mandelhörnchen that are perfectly chewy and just slightly golden. Line 2 baking trays with greaseproof paper, then spread the flaked almonds out into an even layer on a plate and set everything aside until later.

Next, grate the marzipan. I know, I know- grating marzipan sounds weird, right? Don’t skip it though- it really helps to incorporate the marzipan into the dough, and it’s actually pretty easy- marzipan is soft (but not so soft that it can’t be grated!), so it won’t take long at all.

Place your grated marzipan into a large bowl, along with the ground almonds, icing sugar and egg whites. Use a wooden spoon to mix everything together.

Once the mixture has started to come together, switch to your hands and bring the dough together into a smooth ball. The dough will be super sticky, but this is a necessary evil- it needs to be sticky so that the flaked almonds stick to it later. I found that the best way to deal with this was to rinse my hands off in cold water after shaping each cookie and only partially dry them, so they are still a little damp. Not only does this remove any sticky almond build-up on your palms, but having damp hands helps to keep the dough from sticking to you as much in the first place.

Now, you’re ready to shape your mandelhörnchen! Start by pinching off a walnut-sized piece of the dough (it should be about 25g- I like to weigh cookie dough so that all my cookies are the same size and bake evenly). Roll the dough into a smooth ball between your hands.

Once you have a smooth dough ball, open up your palms and continue rolling it between your hands to form a log- you want it to be about 9cm long.

Roll the log in the flaked almonds, until it is fully covered. Bend the coated log into a crescent (or ‘c’) shape, then place it onto one of the prepared baking trays. Repeat for the rest of the dough.

Once you have all of your cookies rolled and shaped, you can bake them in the preheated oven for 10-12 minutes, until just golden. Allow them to cool on the baking trays for a minute or so, to firm up, then carefully transfer them to a wire rack to cool completely.

Once the cookies are cool, you can dip them in chocolate. I like to melt the chocolate in the microwave (1 minute bursts on the lowest setting, stirring in between each one until the chocolate has completely melted), but you could do it over a bain-marie if you prefer. I didn’t bother tempering the chocolate either, which made this even quicker (and the cookies still looked and tasted delicious!).

Once the chocolate is melted, dip the ends of the cookies into it, allowing the excess to drip back into the bowl, then place the dipped cookies onto a tray lined with baking paper. Leave them at room temperature to set for about 1 hour, until hard.

As you use up the chocolate, it will get harder to dip the cookies. At this point, you can either start spooning the chocolate over the ends instead, or you can panic-drizzle the remaining cookies with the dregs of the chocolate like me (not strictly authentic, but just as tasty and far less soul-destroying).

Once the chocolate, however you choose to add it, has set, you can peel the mandelhörnchen off the baking paper and serve them. Alternatively, you can transfer them to an airtight container, where they will keep for about 3 weeks if stored at room temperature, in a cool, dry place.

Final Thoughts

I am obsessed with these cookies. I don’t know if it’s because I waited so long to find the perfect recipe, or just because they are SO DELICIOUS, but I really, truly love them. They were also incredibly easy to make- the hardest part was dipping them in chocolate and that’s optional! Just like the pizzicotti from the last instalment of Baking Around the World, these are festive almond cookies, with very similar ingredients, but they are actually very distinct. While the pizzicotti were soft and clementine-y, these mandelhörnchen are chewy, chocolate-y and intensely almond-y. I like both very much, but the mandelhörnchen have a special place in my heart.

I hope you enjoyed this second instalment of Baking Around the World, and the 11th post of Blogmas At Home! Tomorrow we’ll be halfway through- can you believe it? Let me know if you try making some mandelhörnchen of your own- I’d love to hear what you think!

Gemma

xxx

P.S. This entire post was basically my love letter to Anja Dunk. Thank you for making all of my mandelhörnchen dreams come true!

Recipe

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Mandelhörnchen

These classic German almond cookies are curved into a crescent shape and rolled in flaked almonds before baking. Traditionally, the ends are dipped in dark chocolate, but you can leave them plain if you prefer.

Course Snack

Cuisine German

Keyword almond, Cookie, Dark Chocolate, German

Prep Time 40 minutes minutes

Cook Time 10 minutes minutes

Setting time 1 hour hour

Total Time 1 hour hour 50 minutes minutes

Servings 28 cookies

Ingredients

• 100 g flaked almonds
• 330 g marzipan, grated
• 200 g ground almonds
• 130 g icing sugar
• 2 egg whites

For dipping:

• 180 g dark chocolate

Instructions

• Preheat the oven to 150°C. Line 2 baking trays with greaseproof paper and set aside. Spread the flaked almonds out into an even layer on a plate and set aside, ready for rolling the cookies in later.
• Place the grated marzipan, ground almonds, icing sugar and egg whites into a large bowl and mix with a wooden spoon until the mixture begins to clump together. Use your hands to knead the mixture, so that it forms a smooth, sticky dough.
• Take a small amount of dough (about 25g) and roll it into a ball (see Note 1). Roll the ball between the palms of your hands to form a log, about 9cm long. Roll the log in the flaked almonds to coat it, then bend it into a crescent shape and place it onto one of the lined baking trays. Repeat this process for the rest of the dough.
• Once you have all of your mandelhörnchen rolled, bake one tray at a time in the preheated oven for 10-12 minutes, or until the cookies are golden. Allow the cookies to cool completely on the tray before dipping (if you choose to do so)/serving.
• To dip the cookies, melt the chocolate in the microwave (see Note 2, or use your preferred method for melting). When the chocolate is melted, dip the end of each crescent into the chocolate, allowing any excess to drip off, back into the bowl, before placing the cookies back on the baking paper to set.
• Once the chocolate has set, you can transfer the biscuits to an airtight container- they will keep for about 3 weeks at room temperature.

Notes

1. The dough will be very sticky- it needs to be, so that the flaked almonds stick to it. I found it helpful to rinse my hands off after shaping each cookie- this helps to prevent the sticky dough building up on your palms. I also left my hands ever so slightly damp, which helped to prevent the dough from sticking as well.
2. I find it easiest to melt chocolate in the microwave and I don’t bother tempering it for this recipe. Just break up the chocolate and put it into the microwave, on the lowest temperature, for 1 minute at a time, stirring well between each burst, until it has completely melted.

Adapted from ‘Advent: Festive German Bakes to Celebrate the Coming of Christmas’ by Anja Dunk.

Sources Used

Dunk, Anja, ‘Advent‘: Mandelhörnchen, p.131.

In Jennie’s Kitchen: Luisa’s Mandelhörnchen (Chocolate-Dipped Almond Crescents).

My German Recipes: Almond Crescents or Horns/Mandelhörnchen.

Serious Eats: Chocolate Dipped Almond Horns.

The Daring Gourmet: Mandelhörnchen (German Almond Horns).

These cookies just feel more… adult to me? I mean, sure, there’s toffee, but what is toffee if not the sophisticated older cousin of caramel? The coffee instantly adds a hit of ‘not your average 5-year old’s treat’, while the dark chocolate chunks tones down the typical sugary-sweetness of a chocolate chip cookie. For added maturity, I make these cookies with browned butter, which adds a really deep, nutty flavour to the cookie dough, echoing both the coffee and toffee flavours. In terms of texture, the cookies are perfectly crisp on the outside, while still being soft and chewy on the inside. I like them best when they are still warm from the oven (I have even been known to reheat cooled cookies the next day!), but they’re just as tasty cold.

I mean, I know I said I have the palette of a 5-year old and these cookies are supposed to be more suited to an adult palette, but I still love them SO MUCH! Does that mean I’m finally growing up? Hmm… not sure. I guess a cookie’s a cookie, in the end.

Anyway, let’s get into it, shall we?

Table of Contents

• Ingredients
• Equipment
• Making the Toffee Pieces
• Browning the Butter
• Making the Cookie Dough
• Baking the Cookies
• Make Ahead
• Recipe

Ingredients

Aside from a couple of extra mix-ins, the ingredient list for these cookies is pretty standard:

• Unsalted butter

You need butter for both the toffee pieces and the cookie dough itself. For the cookie dough, you’ll be browning the butter to give your cookies a lovely, nutty depth of flavour. I prefer to use unsalted butter, so that I have more control over the amount of salt in my cookies, but you can use salted if you prefer- you just won’t need to add the salt listed in the recipe to the dough!

• Light brown soft sugar

You also need brown sugar for both the toffee pieces and the cookie dough. Brown sugar gives the toffee its iconic, deep flavour and makes the inside of the cookies super moist and chewy. Make sure to use light brown sugar- if you use dark brown sugar your toffee will have a bitter, burnt flavour, while the flavour of the sugar will overpower the coffee in the cookie dough.

• Caster sugar

For these cookies, you use a combination of brown sugar and caster sugar. The brown sugar keeps the insides chewy, but the caster sugar gives the cookies a crispy exterior. This recipe uses a 4:1 ratio of brown sugar:caster sugar, which gives you the perfect crispy-on-the-outside, chewy-on-the-inside bake!

• 1 whole egg + 1 egg yolk

The addition of an extra egg yolk in this recipe makes for a super soft, tender cookie. I know it can be a bit of a pain to be left with a spare white, but it makes such a difference! You can use the egg white in another recipe, such as my macarons; use it alongside some whole eggs to make an omelette/frittata; or freeze it for another day.

• Vanilla extract

Vanilla extract is often used in chocolate chip cookie recipes to enhance the other flavours in the dough. You only need a little bit for this recipe (you want to enhance the flavours, not overpower them!), but it makes a world of difference.

• Plain flour

Don’t use self-raising flour, as this will affect the finished texture/look of the cookies.

• Baking soda

Don’t substitute baking powder here, as this will also affect the finished texture/look of the cookies.

• Instant coffee granules

To get the coffee flavour into these cookies, I use instant coffee granules. You don’t want to use brewed coffee, because the added liquid will affect the texture of your cookie dough, which will, in turn, affect how the cookies bake up. I like to grind up the coffee granules into a fine powder, using a mortar and pestle, to distribute the flavour more evenly and prevent large specks of coffee in my cookie dough, but this is optional. You could also use espresso powder, but I have not tried this. Espresso powder is more intense, so, if you do use it, you will want to decrease the amount.

I prefer to use decaffeinated instant coffee when I’m baking, so I don’t have to worry about being up all night if I want to have a midnight snack! Realistically, though, the coffee content per cookie isn’t massive, so if you’d prefer to use caffeinated coffee, go ahead!

• Salt

A touch of flaky sea salt really helps to bring out all the caramel-y, nutty flavours in these cookies. I like to add a pinch to the dough, then sprinkle some on top of the cookies as soon as they come out of the oven, to really amp up the flavour.

• Dark chocolate

Listen, I’m a milk chocolate chunk kind of girl through and through. I can just about stretch to a 50/50 milk + dark combo in my cookies. However, for these cookies, I use all dark chocolate. I know- the horror! I just think that the dark chocolate really compliments the coffee in these cookies and makes for a more sophisticated, grown-up cookie, which was, ultimately, my goal for this recipe. Also, I can still satisfy my sweet tooth with the toffee pieces that are mixed in alongside the dark chocolate chunks, so it’s all okay. If you prefer though, you can absolutely use milk chocolate instead.

For this recipe, I like to buy my chocolate in bar form and chop it up into rough chunks myself (I feel like chunks have a much more sophisticated vibe than chips- is that just me?), but go ahead and use chips if you prefer- on the plus side, it’ll cut out the extra chopping step, making these cookies easier to throw together.

Equipment

There are a few pieces of special equipment that I used for this recipe, but none of them are required to make these cookies. Where possible, I have tried to indicate alternatives, so that you can make these cookies whenever/wherever you are, regardless of the equipment you have available!

• Stand mixer

Making the cookie dough in a stand mixer, fitted with a paddle attachment, makes this whole process significantly quicker and easier, which is always a win. If you don’t have a stand mixer, you can absolutely mix the whole thing together by hand, using a large bowl and a wooden spoon- just be prepared for a little bit of an arm workout!

• Mortar and pestle

Again, this isn’t strictly necessary, but I like to grind the instant coffee granules into a fine powder before adding it to the cookie dough, to ensure that the flavour is distributed more evenly and there are no little bits of instant coffee in the dough. If you don’t have a mortar and pestle (or the enthusiasm to grind), you could use an electronic spice grinder, or just leave the granules whole and embrace the speckled-y cookie life!

• Sugar thermometer

I find that the easiest way to make toffee is to use a sugar thermometer- the sugar and butter need to be cooked together until they reach the ‘hard crack’ stage, which is about 146°C. I use a digital thermometer, but any accurate sugar thermometer will work. If you don’t have a sugar thermometer, I would highly recommend buying one- there are some relatively cheap ones available online and it will make working with sugar (and lots of other parts of baking!) much easier. If you’re desperate, you can check for the ‘hard crack’ stage by dropping a spoonful of the hot toffee into cold water and leaving it for a few moments to cool down, before trying to ‘crack’ it with your fingers. When the sugar has reached the ‘hard crack’ stage, it should be brittle and snap when you try to bend it.

• Regular-sized ice cream scoop

I am a huge proponent of using an ice cream scoop to portion cookie dough- it makes the whole process much quicker, easier and neater. Make sure that you use an ice cream scoop with a release mechanism- this method won’t work without it! If you don’t have an ice cream scoop, another of my favourite ways to make even cookies is to weigh the balls of cookie dough. For this recipe, aim to make each cookie dough all about 65g- this will give you the same size cookies that the ice cream scoop method would achieve.

Making the Toffee Pieces

These toffee pieces are really quick to make and work perfectly to balance the bitter coffee/dark chocolate in these cookies. You can also use these toffee bits for other bakes/desserts- they’re delicious sprinkled over ice cream!

If you don’t fancy making your own toffee bits, you could try breaking up some shop-bought toffee and using that instead! Just bear in mind that ready-made toffee comes in thicker chunks, which will be harder to break up. You might want to use a slightly more heavy-duty utensil than a rolling pin for this, like a hammer!

Really though, I would recommend making your own toffee pieces- it’s honestly pretty straightforward and even tastier than the store-bought stuff! To make the homemade toffee pieces, you only need 3 ingredients:

• Brown sugar

Brown sugar is what gives toffee it’s deep, nutty flavour, in comparison to typical caramel. Use light brown soft sugar for this recipe.

• Unsalted butter

Butter is a key ingredient in toffee. I like to use unsalted butter so I can control how much salt ends up in my bakes, but you can use salted if you prefer.

• Water

I mean, it’s barely even an ingredient, but I wanted to note it here because it does make a huge difference to the toffee. Toffee can be a little bit troublesome- often it will separate, leaving you with a pile of sugar and a pool of butter, but the water helps to prevent this.

To make the toffee, start by lining a small baking tray. Ideally, use one with a lip all around, so that the toffee doesn’t spill over the edge.

Then, put the sugar, butter and water into a small saucepan. The amounts listed in this recipe only make a small amount of toffee, so you don’t need a large pan, but do be aware that the sugar will bubble up a little bit as it cooks. If in doubt, use a slightly larger pan, rather than a slightly smaller pan.

Set the pan over a medium heat and stir gently while the butter melts and the sugar dissolves. If the toffee separates while this is happening, stir more vigorously to bring it back together.

Once the sugar has dissolved, stop stirring and allow the toffee to bubble away until it reaches 146°C. During this time, do not stir the toffee- stirring the toffee will cause it to crystallise and you’ll end up with something more similar to fudge than toffee! If you need to move the toffee around, give the whole pan a gentle swirl.

Once the toffee reaches 146°C, take it off the heat. Stir the whole thing vigorously until it forms a homogenous mixture, then pour it out onto the lined tray.

Leave the toffee to cool down completely- it should harden and become brittle. This will take about 20 minutes. Once the toffee is cold, use a rolling pin to smash it up into small pieces, ready to be used in the cookies. You can use the toffee pieces immediately, or you can store them in an airtight container for up to a week.

Browning the Butter

Part of what makes these cookies so deliciously nutty and toasty and flavourful is the use of brown butter in the dough. While it does mean that these cookies require a little more effort, I promise, the end result is so worth it. Also, browning butter is super easy to do- you only need one thing: butter!

Start by putting your butter into a small saucepan and place it over medium heat. Allow the butter to melt, stirring frequently.

Once the butter has melted, keep it over the heat, still stirring frequently. At this point, the butter will still be slightly opaque and you’ll see little white solids/foam floating on the surface- those are the milk solids! As they cook, they’ll start toasting and turn brown, which is how brown butter gets its name.

Eventually, those solids will break down and sink to the bottom of the pan. As this happens, your butter will become clearer (at this stage, you could pass through a coffee filter to remove the solids and you would have the aptly named clarified butter). Keep the pan over the heat and keep the butter bubbling, still stirring frequently.

After a little longer on the heat, the milk solids that sank to the bottom of the pan will begin to turn brown. Keep cooking and stirring the butter until those solids turn a deep, nutty colour, then remove the pan from the heat and there you have it! Brown butter.

Be careful at this stage because the brown butter will be very hot. For this recipe, you want to use room temperature brown butter- it can still be melted, but you don’t want it to be hot. You can leave the brown butter on the side until it cools down, but this will take a little while. I like to transfer the brown butter to a small, heatproof bowl, which I then place into a larger bowl that I have partially filled with ice water. The cold water will help to cool down the butter, so you should be ready to use it in about 10 minutes. Give it a stir every now and then, as it cools, to help things along.

Making the Cookie Dough

Once you have your room temperature brown butter, you can get on with making the cookie dough. As I mentioned earlier, I like to use a stand mixer to make the dough because it makes the whole process so quick and easy, but it’s not a requirement for this recipe. If you would prefer to make the dough by hand, just use a wooden spoon/strong spatula to mix everything together, as directed by the recipe.

A couple of notes on preparation at this stage:

• I like to use dark chocolate chunks in these cookies, but you can absolutely use an equal amount of chocolate chips instead. If you’re using dark chocolate chunks, I always recommend chopping the chocolate bars up before you start making the cookies (perhaps while the brown butter is cooling down) so you can just throw everything together at the end.

• As I mentioned, I like to grind the instant coffee granules beforehand. I use a mortar and pestle for this, but you could also use a spice grinder, if you have one. If you’re using espresso powder, or opting to leave your granules whole for a more speckled-y cookie, skip this step.

To make the dough, put the brown butter and both sugars into the bowl of the stand mixer, fitted with a paddle attachment. Beat on medium speed to combine the ingredients.

Add the egg, egg yolk and vanilla extract and beat again, until well-combined and fluffy.

Sift in the flour, baking soda and finely ground instant coffee granules. Add the salt (I’m using flaky sea salt, so I don’t bother sifting it- just break it up with your fingers as you add it in). Mix on low speed until the dry ingredients are mostly incorporated, then add the dark chocolate chunks and toffee pieces and mix briefly, just until everything is incorporated.

At this point, you need to chill the cookie dough. I know, I know, you want cookies now! However, chilling the cookie dough has 2 benefits:

• It ensures the cookies bake up all thick and chewy.
• It helps all of the flavours to develop and meld together.

Chill the cookie dough for at least an hour, or overnight. I know an hour can feel endless, but by the time you’ve washed up, had a cup of tea and preheated the oven to 190°C, you probably won’t be far off!

Baking the Cookies

Once the dough has chilled, take it out of the fridge and divide it into balls. This recipe makes about 16 cookies and I like to use a regular-sized ice cream scoop to divide up the dough (it makes the whole process SO quick and easy). If you don’t have an ice cream scoop (or one that works for this), you could also weigh the balls for super uniform cookies- each ball should be about 65g if you do this.

Space the dough balls onto 2 baking trays, each lined with greaseproof paper (you need to leave a good amount of space between the cookies because they will spread). Bake the cookies in the oven at 190°C for 10 minutes, until they have turned brown around the edges (typical cookie recipes will require you to check for a golden hue around the edges of the cookies, but these cookies have coffee in, so are naturally much darker anyway).

When the cookies come out of the oven, you’ll probably find that some of the toffee has melted and oozed out here and there. You can fix this and give your cookies back their perfect, uniform appearance by placing an upturned bowl over the cookie (making sure to catch any toffee puddles) and moving it in quick little circles, keeping it flush to the baking tray. This not only brings the toffee back to the cookie, but it also makes the whole cookie slightly thicker and much more circular. I actually do this to all of the cookies, not just the ones that had toffee mishaps. This will only work while the cookies are still warm, though, so make sure to do it as soon as they come out of the oven and to work quickly! Thank you, TikTok, for that little trick. I also like to sprinkle the cookies with a little more flaky sea salt at this stage.

Allow the cookies to cool on the tray for 5-10 minutes before serving. These cookies are best eaten warm (ideally fresh from the oven!), but they will keep in an airtight container for 4-5 days.

Make Ahead

I LOVE to keep cookie dough balls in the freezer, so that I am always ready for spontaneous cookie-snacking. This recipe freezes really well- you can even bake the dough balls straight from frozen! In fact, I think that freezing the cookies actually helps these cookies, because it ensures that the toffee bits stay nice and crunchy during the baking process (they have a tendency to melt away slightly more if the dough balls are not frozen).

I recommend freezing the cookie dough after you have rolled it into balls to make it easier for your future self. I like to place the balls onto a small, lined baking tray and put that in the freezer overnight, until the dough balls have frozen solid. The next day, I transfer the balls to a resealable bag and put them back into the freezer. Like this, the cookie dough balls will keep for up to 2 months, so you can have cookies at a moment’s notice, whenever you feel like it!

I find it helpful to label the bag, so that it’s super easy to tell what the cookies are and how to bake them. If you do this, I recommend including the following information:

1. Flavour (I maintain there is nothing worse than thinking you’re biting into a chocolate chip cookie and discovering that what you thought were chocolate chips are, in fact, raisins).
2. Oven temperature
3. Cook time

For these cookies, bake them, from frozen, for 12 minutes at 190°C.

And that’s how you make these grown-up, Coffee, Toffee and Dark Chocolate Cookies. I think they’re such a perfect, tasty treat for autumn. Let me know if you try them out- I’d love to hear about it!

Gemma

xxx

Recipe

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Coffee, Toffee + Dark Chocolate Cookies

Super delicious, chewy cookies, flavoured with coffee and brown butter and laden with chunks of melting dark chocolate and crunchy, homemade toffee pieces.

Course Dessert, Snack

Keyword Browned Butter, Coffee, Cookie, Dark Chocolate, Toffee

Prep Time 1 hour hour

Cook Time 10 minutes minutes

Chill Time 1 hour hour

Total Time 2 hours hours 10 minutes minutes

Servings 16 cookies

Ingredients

For the toffee bits:

• 55 g unsalted butter
• 100 g light brown soft sugar
• 1 tbsp water

For the cookies:

• 170 g unsalted butter
• 200 g light brown soft sugar
• 50 g caster sugar
• 1 whole egg + 1 yolk
• 1/4 tsp vanilla extract
• 240 g plain flour
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1 1/2 tbsp instant coffee granules, finely ground (see Note 1).
• 1 pinch flaky sea salt, plus extra for sprinkling
• 300 g dark chocolate, chopped

Instructions

For the toffee bits:

• Line a rimmed baking tray with greaseproof paper and set aside.
• Place all of the ingredients for the toffee into a small saucepan over medium heat. Stir gently while the butter melts and the sugar dissolves.
• Once the sugar has dissolved, stop stirring and allow the toffee to bubble away until it reaches 146°C. You can gently swirl the pan during this time, but do not stir the mixture, or your toffee might crystallise.
• When the toffee has reached 146°C, take the pan off the heat and stir vigorously to ensure the mixture is homogenous. Pour onto the lined baking tray and set aside at room temperature to cool down and harden fully- about 20 minutes.
• When the toffee has cooled completely (it should be hard and brittle at this point), use a rolling pin to crack it up into small pieces. The toffee can be use immediately, or stored in an airtight container for up to a week.

For the cookies:

• Begin by browning the butter. Place the butter into a small saucepan over medium heat. Allow the butter to melt, then cook, stirring frequently, until the butter smells nutty and the milk solids have turned a deep brown colour. Remove the pan from the heat and allow the butter to cool to room temperature before using (see Note 2).
• Place the brown butter and both sugars into the bowl of a stand mixer, fitted with a paddle attachment. Mix on medium speed until combined.
• Add the egg, egg yolk and vanilla extract to the butter/sugar mixture. Beat on medium speed until well-combined and fluffy- about 30 seconds.
• Sift the flour, baking soda and coffee granules into the mixture. Add the salt, then mix on low speed until the dry ingredients are mostly incorporated.
• Add the dark chocolate chunks and smashed toffee pieces and mix again, just until incorporated. Place the bowl into the fridge and allow the cookie dough to chill for 1 hour, or overnight.
• Just before the dough is ready to come out of the fridge, preheat the oven to 190°C. Line 2 baking trays with greaseproof paper and set aside.
• When the cookie dough has chilled, remove it from the fridge and divide it into 16 even balls (I used a regular-sized ice cream scoop for this, but you could also weigh the cookie dough balls- each ball should be about 65g). Place the cookie dough balls onto the lined trays, making sure to leave plenty of space between them (they will spread as they bake).
• Bake the cookies for 10 minutes, or until they have turned a deep brown colour around the edges (the coffee makes these cookies darker than average chocolate chip cookies, so look for a deep brown, rather than a golden colour).
• When the cookies come out of the oven, place an upturned bowl (you need one that is slightly bigger than the cookies themselves) over one cookie and quickly move it around and around in small circles, keeping it flush against the tray. This will make sure that your cookie stays nice and thick, has a perfectly round shape and, as a bonus, will bring any toffee that might have oozed out during the baking process back into the cookie. Repeat for the other cookies, then sprinkle with flaky sea salt and allow to cool for 5-10 minutes before serving. The cookies will last for 4-5 days if stored in an airtight container, but are best eaten warm (ideally fresh from the oven).

Notes

1. I like to grind instant coffee granules in a mortar and pestle for this recipe, so that I have a really fine powder that distributes evenly throughout the dough. You can skip the grinding step, if you would prefer, but your cookies will be speckled with the coffee granules. You could also use espresso powder, instead, but I would recommend reducing the amount of coffee if you do. Don’t use brewed coffee (it will make your dough too wet!) or coffee grounds (this would affect the texture of your cookies).
2. Your brown butter needs to be at room temperature before you make the dough, to ensure your cookies bake perfectly. You can leave it to cool by itself, but it will take a little while to come to temperature (brown butter is very hot when it has just been made!). I like to transfer my butter to a small, heatproof bowl and sit that in a larger bowl, filled with ice water. Stir it every now and then and, after about 10 minutes, the butter will be cool enough to use.

Make Ahead

This cookie dough freezes very well- I love to have some stashed in the freezer so I can have fresh cookies at a moment’s notice. For best results, I recommend rolling the dough into balls, placing them on a lined tray and freezing overnight until solid. Then, transfer the balls to a resealable bag (don’t forget to label it!) and store in the freezer for up to 2 months. The cookie dough balls can be baked straight from frozen- they’ll need about 12 minutes at 190°C.