Double Chocolate Espresso Cinnamon Cookies

When I started baking many years ago, I was very precise about everything I did related to baking. All of the ingredients had to be precise. I didn’t like to be bothered while I was in the kitchen. If I was making cookies, all of them had to be baked before anyone could eat any. I got really annoyed if anything disturbed my baking process. It seems silly now, but at the time baking was a serious matter, not to be disrupted in any way.

Well, I’m much more relaxed now and while I still strive to be a successful baker, it’s not so serious. My husband likes to check in with me when I am baking, eat some of the cookie dough, and steal fresh out of the oven cookies. I grumble a little bit about this but it’s only in jest. Sometimes if I am making a cookie that doesn’t yield very many, I will warn him to make sure to leave enough to take to work!

This week has been very difficult and stressful, so when picking the cookie for the week I was open to the option of doing the best that I can. I found these cookies on Culinary Concoctions by Peabody, one of my favorite blogs. She makes great recipes and has wonderful photography, and I hope that my blog is even fractionally as successful as hers is. I thought that I had all the ingredients to make these, but then I realized that I didn’t have toffee chips. No worries! I decided to substitute cinnamon chips and they worked very well. Sometimes mixing things up and not worrying about perfection ends up working out better anyway.

8 ounces butter, softened
1 cup sugar
1 cup light brown sugar
2 large eggs
1 tsp vanilla
2 tsp instant espresso powder
2 cups flour
2/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
1cup cinnamon chips (or toffee pieces)
1 cup mini semisweet chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 325° F. Line baking sheets with silicone baking mats.

In a large mixer bowl, cream the butter and sugars until light and fluffy. Add the eggs, vanilla, and espresso powder. Stir until combined.

In a small bowl, sift together the flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, and salt. Mix into the creamed butter mixture. Stir in the cinnamon chips and chocolate chips.

Scoop tablespoon-sized balls onto the prepared baking sheet using a cookie scoop. Make sure the dough is at least 2 inches apart, as they spread a bit during baking.

Bake until the cookies are just flat, 16 to 18 minutes. Let cool about 10 minutes on the baking sheet before transferring to a cooling rack.

Recipe from Culinary Concoctions by Peabody