Soft and chewy, those coffee, chocolate and pecans cookies offer a great treat; an irresistible flavour combination for any time that you need a pick me up.
It’s cold out there, and very white… yes, we are kind of snowed in, which means no playing outside… as a result, we are spending more time in the kitchen, cooking and baking and generally creating some wonderful creations… and today I would love to share our new cookies with you 🙂
Ingredients:
- 175g flour
- 115g butter; soften
- 115g light muscovado sugar
- 85g caster sugar
- 50g dark chocolate; roughly chopped
- 50g pecans; roughly chopped
- 2tbsp instant coffee
- 1tbs hot water
- 1 large egg
- 1tsp vanilla essence
- 1/2tsp baking powder
- 1/4tsp bicarbonate of soda
- 1/4tsp grounded ginger
- 1/4tsp grounded cinnamon
For decoration (optional)
- 25g dark chocolate; melted
- 25g pecans; roughly chopped
Method:
Preheat the oven to 180C and prepare two large baking trays by lining them with baking parchment.
In a large bowl place the butter and both sugars and beat until light and fluffy.
Put the coffee granules into a small bowl or cup; add hot water and stir until dissolved, set aside to cool. Then add the vanilla extract and the egg and whisk until combined.
Slowly add the coffee mixture into your butter and sugar mix beating until creamed and fluffy again.
Sift the flour, baking powder, bicarbonate of soda, ginger and cinnamon and fold carefully into your mix.
Finally, fold in the pecans and chocolate chunks.
Measure approximately one heaped tablespoon of mixture per cookie and place onto your earlier prepared baking trays spacing them well apart to allow room to grow.
Bake in the preheated oven for 12-15 minutes or until golden brown and slightly crisp on the outside, they will still feel very soft to the touch but they are ready at this stage.
Leave to cool on the baking tray for a 10 minutes, then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.
If decorating, wait until the cookies have cooled down completely, drizzle with melted chocolate then immediately sprinkle with chopped nuts (the still warm chocolate will work like a glue as it cools and sets).
Store, after cooling down completely, in an airtight container.
Enjoy with a beverage of your choice!
Ingredients:
Do not squeeze your mixture too much as this will make it dense and remove moisture from it, which will result in dry falafels later on. If you are struggling to form your desired shape you can:
In a heavy bottomed frying pan, ideally a small cast iron one, preheat 100ml of olive oil (or more if you pan is bigger, ideally you are aiming for enough oil in the pan to cover half of your falafel).
Today I want to share with you a selection of delicious recipes which incorporate this wonder nut. I hope they will get you inspired.
Chopped Walnuts Twist Cookies
Coffee Walnut Cake
Pear and Apple Frittata with Walnuts, Goats Cheese and Honey
I was never a huge fan of walnuts. I do like them, don’t get me wrong, but given the choice of different nuts I would usually go for almonds, cashews or even hazelnuts. Since coming to Bulgaria we have discovered that walnuts are the only protected tree in this country, which obviously means no chopping without very special permission, as a result there are walnuts everywhere! And I really mean everywhere! I can go for a 5 minute walk to my local village shop and come back with a basket of walnuts if I was to collect only those that have dropped from the trees along the sidewalk. With such an abundance of these nuts I have started to look closer into them and to my big surprise I have discovered that they are truly nuts of wonder with many benefits which really shouldn’t be overlooked.
The recipe was created by Amanda Hamilton, a TV Nutritionist working in connection with digestive health brand Udo’s Choice.