I should
really call these Emily’s Expresso Cookies.
Emily? She is one very intrepid lady who came to Assos some years ago now with
her husband to run a pansiyon. Sadly her husband died but she soldiers on
and is a very dear friend.
One of the
specialities of her pansiyon is teatime! Yes, every afternoon during the season she
provides cakes and cookies along with çay at about 5pm on her delightful
terrace overlooking the valley. It’s
always a pleasure to go round there at the best of times but her teatime treats
are not to be missed! She made these
particular cookies for another friend’s birthday party and they were an instant
hit with all of us.
For a startthey are basically chocolate and as we all know, chocolate always wins, and
secondly, they look very professional which appeals to me!
A few days ago, she came round to say goodbye. She departs around this time every
year to go back to her all-embracing family in the States where she stays and
does her duty as daughter, mother and grandmother till early April. Then she
returns to us!
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me a present. It was my birthday recently and she had noted it: a lovely
crescent-shaped china box complete with lid. Open it, open it, she urged. So I did and
there I found in her meticulous script the recipe for Expresso Cookies. She
hadn’t forgotten.
Emily’s original recipe for Expresso Cookies which means it’s all in cups: easy
to make and soo very moreish which means irresistible in British English!
granulated sugar
had to omit)
Preheat
oven to 175°C/ 325°F
Beat
sugar, butter, vanilla and egg in a large bowl. Stir in flour, cocoa and salt.
Shape
dough by rounded teaspoonfuls into 1-inch balls. Place about 2 inches apart on
an ungreased cookie sheet. Press thumb or end of wooden spoon into centre of
each cookie, but do not press all the way to the cookie sheet.
Bake
7-11 mins or until edges are firm. Mine took 10 mins. Quickly remake
indentations with end of wooden spoon (or thumb) if necessary. Immediately
remove from cookie sheet to wire rack. Cool completely, about 30 mins.
make Expresso Filling:
used one of those little packets)
broken pieces of a dark chocolate bar
I used regular Nescafe
desired ( again, I didn’t have any but it sounds like a nice addition)
Mix
cream and instant coffee in saucepan. Heat over medium heat, stirring
constantly until coffee is dissolved. Remove from heat, stir in choc chips or
pieces until melted. Stir in liqueur if using. Cool about 10 mins.
Spoon
rounded ½ tsp Expresso filling into indentation in each cookie and leave to
set. They remain tacky for quite some time- don’t let that put you off eating
them. But if you wait, they will indeed firm up so you can arrange them in a
decorative way on a serving dish without them sticking together.
of the filling left over and realised belatedly that my idea of ‘1-inch’ balls was
bigger than Emily’s so I had made only 2 dozen or so cookies. I certainly
wasn’t going to waste this mocha-tasting chocolate cream so quickly made up a
large chocolate slab cake (it was a rainy day in Assos!) and drizzled the
remaining filling over the top with a final touch of a few chopped walnuts.
Happy belated birthday, Claudia!
What a lovely birthday gift. I will definitely try these cookies.
"HAPPY BELATED BIRTHDAY"!!!!! Hope you had a great day. :-)) What a nice friend to provide you with such a beautiful gift.
I'm definitely going to copy this recipe….one of my sister/in/laws is of Italian background and she loves anything espresso. I also have lots of Italian friends here because the city has over 1/2 million Italians residing….. I'm sure they will enjoy them when I make them.
Thank you again for sharing your yummy recipe and wonderful photos.
Happy belated birthday! I copied down your cookie recipe as I thought these would be lovely on a Christmas cookie tray. Thank you very much – love your blog – you should write a cookbook!