Mocha Bites

Oh Martha Stewart, you came up with a great recipe.  It was originally with espresso, but I didn't have any on hand and turned it into Mocha Bites instead of Cappuccino-Chocolate Bites as you had called it.  A coffee shortbread cookie with a chocolate cream in the middle.....yep, I was all over this one.  You can make it with the espresso if you want, I just switched out the espresso for instant coffee and it worked great.  If you love mocha anything, this will be your new favorite cookie. 

hello there

I was torn between rolling out the dough and cutting it with a cookie cutter like it calls for, or rolling the dough into a log and slicing portions out.  I went with rolling it out.....it's a lot of work but worth it.  You can put a lot of cookies on a sheet at a time, they don't expand during the baking process.  I happily filled up my baking sheet.



lots of cookies

So here's a lesson from me - read the whole recipe before you start.  I saw that the dough needed to be chilled for 30 minutes, not a big deal.   But when it came time to make the filling (and all my cookies were cooled and ready to go), I saw that the filling needed to be chilled for at least 4 hours.  Why wasn't this in the beginning of the recipe?!  Shame on me for missing this.  It's the coffee cake muffins all over again.  So I made the filling and put it in a metal bowl and chilled it for an hour - worked great.  Metal chills it a lot quicker and I love it.  Then I finally got to put the cookies together and try one.  Delicious...and it is a strong coffee flavored cookie.  Here's the original recipe.  I switched out espresso for instant coffee...feel free to do the same.

Cappuccino-Chocolate Bites

makes about 2 1/2 dozen

2/3 cup all purpose flour

1 tbsp finely ground espresso beans

1/8 tsp salt

6 tbsp butter, room temperature

1/4 cup confectioners sugar

1/4 tsp vanilla extract

1/3 cup heavy cream

2 1/2 oz milk chocolate, finely chopped

1. Whisk flour, espresso and salt in a bowl.  Put butter and sugar in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, and mix on medium-high speed until pale and fluffy.  Mix in vanilla.  Add flour mixture; mix on medium-low until dough comes together.  Shape into a disk, and wrap in plastic.  Refrigerate 30 minutes.
2. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Let dough stand at room temperature 10 minutes.  Roll between sheets of parchment paper to 1/8" thick.  Cut out rounds with a 1 1/8" cutter.  Place on sheets lined with parchment paper.  Reroll scraps; cut out.  Freeze 10 minutes. 
3. Bake until set but not browned, about 9 minutes.  Let cool on sheets 5 minutes.  Transfer to wire racks; cool completely.
4. Bring cream to a simmer.  Pour over chocolate; stir until smooth.  Press plastic wrap onto surface; refrigerate at least 4 hours or up to overnight.  Whisk to soft peaks; transfer to a pastry bag fitted with a plain round tip.  Pipe about 1 tsp filling on bottoms of half the cookies; sandwich with remaining cookies.