Café & Cream Shortbread

June 10, 2009

First I have to say that it wasn’t my intention to bombard you with sugary snacks this week, but there were a couple contests I just had to enter. All I could think of were desserts so it turns out this week is focused heavily on desserts. That’s okay. More reason to get in some good workouts towards the end of the week!

Ever since I saw Chow and Chatter’s contest, I’ve been trying to come up with a coffee inspired creation. I finally got the idea the other night and went to work making Café & Cream Shortbread.

A great thing about Brazilian coffee is that is ground into a fine powder. This makes for a very strong cup of joe, but it also makes it ideal for adding directly to baked goods. It dissolves without leaving a gritty texture and adds a lot of coffee flavor. In addition you don’t have to worry about brewing and cooling it ahead of time and it doesn’t add moisture to the recipe.

I decided to start with a traditional shortbread and this is more like a brown sugar shortbread. The reason being that instead of white sugar, I used mascavo sugar. It is possible to find this in the US at Latin Markets, or so I’ve heard. It is an unrefined sugar which is dried and sifted after the sugar cane is harvested. It acts much like our processed brown sugar in baking, but adds a stronger flavor. Sometimes I like the flavor sometimes I don’t, but on this occasion it worked well.

In half the dough I added cocoa powder and ground coffee. In a perfect world these would have come out as a more defined checker board, but it has been forever since I’ve made checkered cookies and my skills are apparently a little rusty.

That didn’t affect the flavor though. This shortbread is soft and flaky melting in your mouth almost immediately. The sugar gives it just enough sweetness which is slowly overtaken by the strong coffee flavor with each bite.

Café & Cream Shortbread

1 cup unsalted butter, at room temp
½ cup mascavo sugar
½ tsp vanilla
2 cups flour (I used white, but others may work well too)
2 tbsp cocoa powder
1 tbsp ground coffee (espresso powder would work too)

Cream butter and sugar. Add in vanilla. Slowly mix in flour. Dough will be crumbly. Press dough together and split into two equal parts.

Transfer one half to a sheet of plastic wrap. Press together to form the dough more and wrap in plastic as you shape it into a square log. Refrigerate for about 15 to 30 minutes.


To the remaining dough, mix in cocoa powder and coffee. Repeat the same process forming it into a square log shape. Refrigerate for about 15 to 30 minutes.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Remove dough from fridge. If it is too hard to work with allow to sit at room temp for a bit to soften. Cut each log into four equal strips. Arrange the dark and light strips so that they alternate, make two stacked rows. Wrap in plastic and from into a square log, pressing the dough together slightly. Unwrap and cut cookies about ¼ inch wide.


Place on an ungreased cookie sheet. Bake for 8 to 10 minutes. Let cool for 1 to 2 minutes and carefully transfer from cookie sheet to cooling rack. Makes 12 to 15 cookies.

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  • Maria June 10, 2009 at 11:21 am

    I love your treats! These are so neat! Great job!

  • Sagan June 10, 2009 at 11:58 am

    YUM. It looks tricky to make that checkerboard pattern but so good! I love shortbread.

  • Chow and Chatter June 10, 2009 at 12:43 pm

    wow impressive Lori, I love it, my hubby is going to Rio De Janeiro next week, any good recommendations? (rebeccasubbiah at yahoo dot com) thanks rebecca

  • janetha June 10, 2009 at 1:07 pm

    WOW these are so freaking fantastic! i love how they look, i am so impressed. thanks for sharing this!

  • jordan June 10, 2009 at 1:10 pm

    I HAVE to try these! They look and sound lovely! 🙂

  • Sweta June 10, 2009 at 1:14 pm

    That’s so cool :)Love the checkered
    look-all the best!! Hope you win.
    I simply cannot think of a recipe with coffee-must ask her if I can send a cup of South India’s “filter” coffee as my entry 😉

  • cathy June 10, 2009 at 1:15 pm

    So fancy looking! Always love your recipes, Lori!

  • Heather June 10, 2009 at 5:36 pm

    those are so beautiful! i’m always amazed at how nice some bloggers can make their food look! they’re so symmetrical and lovely!!

  • 5 Star Foodie June 10, 2009 at 6:01 pm

    Beautiful shortbread – I love this checkerboard pattern, what a neat idea! It sounds really delicious too! I am looking forward to baking with Brazilian coffee, got my ideas conceptualized, now time to get cooking 🙂

  • Femin Susan June 10, 2009 at 7:18 pm

    Wow! Thanks for sharing…….

  • Emily June 10, 2009 at 7:21 pm

    So pretty! I’m very impressed!

  • Reeni♥ June 10, 2009 at 7:29 pm

    Your checkerboards came out great!! These are lovely little treats, I love the flavors!

  • Alison June 10, 2009 at 7:58 pm

    That looks delicious! The checkerboard reminds me of the candy cane cookies I used to make at Christmas.

  • burpandslurp June 10, 2009 at 8:56 pm

    I made this once for Christmas, and it was So pretty. Love it! And mascavo sugar can also be found in Whole Foods.

  • Rowena... June 11, 2009 at 1:18 am

    Only 12-15? Well I had better double, no triple this recipe if I make it for myself. These would more than likely be a hit at my husband’s work office!

  • gastroanthropologist June 11, 2009 at 6:45 am

    I love the way checkerboard cookies look. And shortbread is one of my favorite cookies – because they taste so good and use so few ingredients. I think the only two ingredients I might consider adding to it are cocoa and coffee! I don’t think I’ve heard of mascavo sugar…is it similar/the same thing as muscavado?

  • kat June 11, 2009 at 6:48 am

    What a cute cookie & the flavors sound great. I think you did well with your checker boards

  • Michelle @ Find Your Balance June 11, 2009 at 7:02 am

    Ooh I’ve never done anything with checkboards! How neat. It reminds me of how you decorated that cake with powdered sugar that other time. You have good tricks!

  • lauren June 11, 2009 at 8:38 am

    these look so fancy. I love shortbread, but have never seen something like this. love it!

  • Shari@Whisk: a food blog June 11, 2009 at 10:31 am

    Love the checkerboard effect. These look wonderful! And delicious with a latte, perhaps?

  • Lori June 11, 2009 at 2:54 pm

    Maria – Thanks!

    Sagan- It’s really not so bad. the key is keeping the pieces the same size which does take some practice. 🙂

    Chow & Chatter – It looks like you got my email. Hope he has a great time!

    janetha and jordan – Thank you. Definitely give them a try.

    Sweta – Thanks! I’d love to try that coffee you mentioned.

    cathy – Thanks!

    Heather – Thanks! Oh how cameras can cover up a bit of imperfection. Ha! 🙂

    5 Star – I’m really looking fwd to what you create. The coffee is so great to bake with.

    Femin – Thanks for stopping by with your comment.

    Emily & Reeni – Thank you! Really they would each be good by themselves too, and less difficult to construct. Ha!

    Alison – That’s a fun idea! The peppermint would even go well with these flavors.

    burpandslurp – Thanks for the tip about the sugar. Great to know I can get it there!

    Rowena – Ha, ha! It works out perfect for us around here, but for a group you’d definitely need to double. 🙂

    gastoanthro – From what I’ve read it is pretty much the same thing. The sugar cane juice is extracted and then tried to make the sugar. I think it is just a difference of regions and languages.

    kat – Thanks! I appreciate that. I just need to work a little more on my even strips. They look at little abstract though, maybe a little artsy. Ha, ha!

    Michelle – Ha, ha! You identified a trend I have going that I wasn’t aware of.

    lauren – Thanks! I’m a big fan of shortbread too. Simple yet so good!

    Shari – Thanks! Perfect with a latte for sure.

  • jh June 11, 2009 at 2:54 pm

    Wonderful looking recipe. I love shortbread, it is so easy to make and such a compliment to fruit. Thanks for all the wonderful recipes and inspiring posts!

    jen
    Boda Weight Loss Blog

  • kiss my spatula June 11, 2009 at 6:03 pm

    those look so unbelievably sweet and cute! gorgeous, just gorgeous!

  • Tangled Noodle June 11, 2009 at 6:43 pm

    Coffee and cookie in one! I love the checkerboard look but have yet to try making it myself (I’m still stuck on the scoop’n’drop method). We just finished our last package of Brazilian ground coffee – it’s so good! Now we’ll have to figure out how to go and pick up some more. 😎

  • sangeeta June 12, 2009 at 12:36 pm

    these are so pretty………no harm in having them once in a while.

  • Amy June 12, 2009 at 3:16 pm

    I don’t remember if I commented on this yet! Either way, I looked at that muscavo and really want to try it. I’m going to ask about it at my Natural cooking school and see if anyone knows the scooop.

    Also, last night I tried Dandy tea for the first time. tastes just like coffee and is great for liver detox (no caffeine, no gluten) maybe that would work here in place of the coffee!

  • Meghan (Making Love In The Kitchen) June 13, 2009 at 6:14 pm

    Always wondered how cookies got that checker board thing.

  • Lori June 14, 2009 at 2:18 pm

    jh – Thanks! I appreciate you stopping by and the kind words. Thanks for sharing your blog!

    kiss my spatula – Thanks! I’m happy to find your blog. Lots of great stuff on there!

    Tangled Noodle – I’m definitely going to have to find a source in the US because I will miss it for sure.

    sangeeta – Thanks! Yes, they are a great treat.

    Amy – Very interesting about that tea. Do let us know what you find out about the sugar. Tangled Noodle actually brought it up in the comments once and I didn’t even realize that the muscavo was unrefined until I did more research. At first I thought it was just like our brown sugar in the US. Very different though.

    Meghan – Glad I could uncover the mystery for you. Ha! It is easier seen than done, that is for sure. 🙂

  • Miranda June 18, 2009 at 5:08 pm

    Wonderful, thank you for sharing.

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