Triple Chocolate Espresso Bean Cookies

I think we’re friends now, right? I’ll be honest with you, so let me tell you what happens when you decide at 10:30 PM to start to bake something and you’re out of certain ingredients, but you’ve also been awake since 7 AM and didn’t get to bed until 3:30 AM, so essentially you’re running on the fumes of about four hours of sleep, you just go with what you got. This time I had some leftover stuff from any one of my last recipes, I don’t how it happens, but I always get left with an odd amount of stuff like chocolate chips. It’s like when you have one hot dog bun left, but for some reason two hot dogs. Who ate a dog with no bun? Wasn’t me.

Anyway, I thought I’d bring another cookie over the edge this time with some of Trader Joe’s Dark Chocolate Covered Espresso Beans. This one is going to be a sugar high the likes of which you may not return. Couple that with chocolate chips and I’ve probably piqued your interest, but nay, that’s not enough, so I’m throwing in white chocolate chips just because I can. I hope you’re ready to pull an all-nighter.

I started here:

Inside you get a lot of these:

They’re more than just curiously strong. They’re really strong and have a bitter aftertaste, so I tried to counteract that flavor with sweet chocolate. I started with my base chocolate chip cookie recipe by Dora on AllRecipes.com.

Triple Chocolate Espresso Bean Cookies

Makes ~ 40 medium sized cookies

• 1 cup softened butter
• 3/4 cup white sugar
• 1 cup brown sugar
• 2 eggs
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 3 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 2 teaspoons hot water
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 2/3 cup white chocolate chips
• 1/3 cup chocolate chips
• 1 cup chocolate covered espresso beans crushed/chopped

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

2. Cream your butter and sugars together.

3. Add eggs one at a time. Add vanilla extract.

4. Add flour, one cup at a time.

5. Dissolve baking soda in hot water, then add to mixture. Add in salt.

6. Add chocolate chips. Add espresso beans. Mix.

7. Place on ungreased cookie sheet and bake for 10-12 minutes.

8. Allow cookies to cool and enjoy with cold milk.

The chocolate covered espresso beans are crazy. They’re good, but the after taste just doesn’t do it for me. I think crushing them makes them a little bit more palatable, and placed amongst the mixed chocolate chips they’re good. If you like espresso (you could also just sub in just plain ol’ chocolate covered coffee beans) these cookies are for you.

What I learned from this recipe:

My pictures suck, some have flash, some don’t, they’re all differently. I’m sorry. The lighting in my kitchen sucks. I’ve got canister lighting installed in the ceiling and despite have seven lights on at times they don’t seem to light anything nicely. Plus because they’re directional and overhead they always create shadows, which , I’ve mostly taken care of, but only because I turn to weird angles. I wish I could say I was getting better at it. I’m not.

Also, I don’t really like espresso. It’s a little too much for me. I don’t like foods heavy on aftertaste. Onions, seafood, and now espresso. I’m not a big coffee drinker, so I’ll stick to the occasional latte or mocha, but mostly I like an iced coffee. Maybe these things on ice cream? Next time around.

Speaking of next time…until we meet again. Enjoy and if you like this concoction share it. Thanks for reading and come back soon. Like the post, follow the blog, subscribe via email, do one or all, or none. You have free will to do whatever you so choose. Take advantage of that, start by baking some cookies. Power of suggestion. Ok, it’s 2 AM, I’ve got espresso cookies in me and I’m not going to sleep any time soon…Gotta go or this will go on forever.