Coffee Pecan Cookies

So I’m back! With more Cookies, of course.  Sooner than you had imagined? You see, when you were reading all about the Nutella filled Linzer cookies, I was already baking a batch of these and making the tastiest glaze ever to decorate them with. You guessed it! I used the same dough to make these.

In fact after making about 12 Linzers, I rolled the dough into a log, covered it in plastic wrap and refrigerated it. Later on I rolled the log on chopped nuts to get a nice nutty coating around the circumference of the cookie when sliced. Then it was a matter of just baking them and dropping a spoonful of coffee glaze on to them. The glaze is super simple and ready in 2-3 minutes. Though in doubt about the quantity of coffee to add to the glaze, I am glad I went with my instincts. The glaze is gorgeous and so strongly tasting and smelling of coffee which is why I loved it all the more.

Isn’t it fantastic that you can get two completely different cookie recipes…both tasting and looking great from the same dough. And quite a generous number of cookies too. I got 12 Linzers and 14 of these. I thought it would make such a great gift idea when you are looking to simply things and yet come up with an assortment of cookies.
Think about it…12 Linzer cookies, 6 filled with Nutella, 6 filled up with jam or lemon curd. And 14 of these cookies, 7 with a coffee glaze and other 7 with some other flavour…probably peppermint considering the season. A few drops of pink food colouring would do the trick with peppermint. And there you have it…a box of different flavoured, colourful looking cookies. You can play around with different ideas, I guess.
Please note, the recipe below is for the entire dough. You can halve it accordingly.

These cookies are by far the best I have made this year. And that’s not small because I bake at least 3-4 different cookies every month. I love baking cookies and gifting them to my friends. I do it all the time.
I think the best way to tell someone that you like them is to make them a cookie.

 

Coffee Pecan Cookies
Yields 28 large cookies

For the Cookies
1 cup hazelnut meal/ground hazelnuts or any nut meal of your choice
2 cups plain flour
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup (226 grams) unsalted butter, room temperature
3/4 cup castor sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
2 egg yolks
3/4 cup pecans or any nut of your choice, finely chopped
Pecan halves, for decoration

For the coffee glaze
adapted from Taste.com

3/4 cup icing sugar mixture
1 tbsp boiling water
1 tbsp butter, softened
2 tsp espresso coffee powder

In a bowl whisk together the flour, cinnamon and salt.

In the bowl of  your electric mixer (or with a hand mixer), beat the butter and sugar until light and fluffy (about 2-3 minutes). Beat in the  vanilla extract and egg yolks. Finally, beat in the ground hazelnuts and then the  flour mixture.

Divide the dough in half, roll each piece of dough into a 5 cm diameter log. Cover in plastic wrap and refrigerate until firm.

Once the log is firm, take it out and keep aside for 5 minutes. Unwrap and lightly roll in the chopped nuts till evenly coated. Wrap each log in plastic wrap tightly again and refrigerate for 30 minutes. This step ensures that the nut coating adheres to the cookies while baking.

Preheat oven to 180 degrees C. Line two baking sheets with parchment  paper.

Using a sharp knife, carefully cut logs into 1.5cm-thick slices. Place on lined baking trays. Bake for 15-20 minutes, swapping trays over in oven in between (baking time will depend on the size of the cookie. Mine took 20 minutes as the cookies were large) Bake till crisp or until edges begin to turn light brown. Allow to cool on trays for 5 minutes. Transfer to wire racks to cool completely.

To make the Glaze, sift icing sugar into a bowl. Combine boiling water, butter and coffee powder in a separate bowl and stir until coffee is dissolved. Add to icing sugar and stir until mixture is smooth.
Drop 1 teaspoon of glaze onto centre of each cookie. Top with 1 pecan. Allow icing to set. Serve.