Kahlua Crinkles

It seems like with the recent snowy weather we have had in the Seattle are, there’s been a lot of time in the house and both my husband and I have had time to look at recipes. My husband has a colleague whose Mom makes homemade Kahlua, and my husband wanted to give that a try. The recipe is fairly simple: simple syrup, vodka, and espresso powder. He thought it would be even better with espresso vodka, although that delayed the making of the Kahlua as it took us a bit to get to the liquor store that had the particular spirit. He was right though- the Kahlua is pretty great with espresso vodka.

The recipe makes a lot of Kahlua, so I will be making many recipes with Kahlua. Ever so helpful, my husband sent me an email with quite a few different recipes that use Kahlua. This is one of the recipes. I like a chewy crinkle cookie, so these sounded like a great start to using the homemade Kahlua. The original recipe called for butter, but I’ve substituted shortening so my friend at work who doesn’t eat dairy can also have them. Feel free to use butter or vegan butter or whatever you’d like for the cookies.

When I make the dough for these cookies, I was worried that it would be too hard to work with. It is a soft dough, but not as sticky as I thought it would be. And since I didn’t use butter, chilling the dough wouldn’t have done any good. Thankfully it worked out just fine. The Kahlua sugar is tricky to work with, as it is somewhat wet, so you must be persistent to get it to evenly coat the dough. This recipe makes about 3 dozen cookies, and they come out of the oven about the same size as when you put them in. These cookies have a very pronounced coffee flavor, and I love the crusty sugar around the edges.

Kahlua Crinkles

3/4 cup granulated sugar

1 tablespoon Kahlua

2 1/2 cups flour

3/4 cup cocoa powder

2 1/4 teaspoons baking powder

1 tablespoon instant espresso powder
1/2 teaspoon salt

3/4 cup shortening

1 1/2 cup sugar

1 tablespoon Kahlua

3 eggs

             

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line two baking sheets with silicone baking mats.

Make the Kahlua sugar: in a small bowl whisk together the sugar and Kahlua; set aside.

Make the cookies: in a medium bowl whisk together the flour, cocoa powder, baking powder, espresso powder and salt; set aside. In a large mixer bowl, beat the shortening, sugar, and Kahlua on medium until light. Add the eggs, one at a time, beating for one minute after each addition. With the mixer running on low, gradually stir in the flour mixture.

Shape the dough into balls and roll in the Kahlua sugar. Place on the prepared baking sheets. Flatten the cookies slightly with the palm of your hand.

Bake cookies for 10-12 minutes, until the cookies are set and the tops of the cookies are cracked.

Recipe from An Affair from the Heart