Mom’s Coffee Shortbread Cookies

My mother makes the most extraordinary coffee shortbread cookies. It’s a unique recipe I’ve never found anywhere else. I love that they are made from simple ingredients and are easy to make. These are perfect with a cup of coffee or hot chocolate, and even better when they’re dunked. And if you want to get fancy, you can drizzle them or dip them in dark chocolate.

Mom's Crispy Coffee Shortbread Cookies

Here’s the recipe:
1 cup unsalted butter, softened
2/3 cup brown sugar, packed
2-3 tablespoons instant coffee, crushed to dust
2 cups all-purpose flour
3-4 tablespoons sugar, for dusting

In a large bowl, beat butter with a mixer until creamy. Add the brown sugar and coffee dust (I like to crush the coffee granules with the back of a spoon until it’s powdered); beat until well blended. Stir in the flour and mix well. The dough will seem pretty crumbly, not creamy like a chocolate chip cookie dough, and that’s good. Using a spatula or your hands, press the dough into a ball and then roll into a log. Wrap in plastic wrap and put it in the fridge to firm up.

To bake, pre-heat the oven to 300F. Once the dough is firm, you have two choices. To make them like my mother does, cut the dough into pieces and roll into ping-pong sized balls. Place them on an ungreased cookie sheet. Dip a glass into sugar and use it to flatten each dough ball to 1/4″ thick (it helps on the first one to dampen the bottom of the glass first; after that the butter from the cookie dough will help the sugar to stick to the glass). If you want to make them like I do, slice the log into rounds 1/4″ thick, arrange on ungreased cookie sheets so they’re 1″ apart, and sprinkle them liberally with sugar. Either way, the goal is to make the cookies fairly thin so they crisp up when they’re done. Bake at 300F for 20 minutes, turning the tray around after 10 minutes. Cool completely; the cookies will crisp up as they cool. Store in an airtight container in the refrigerator. Then break out the coffee pot or that box of hot cocoa mix and start dunking.