Once you try Coffee Cookies, your morning coffee will seem incomplete without them! This coffee biscuits recipe starts with a thin cookie speckled with bits of ground coffee. They are topped with eye catching, marbled, coffee icing for a dunkable cookie that coffee lovers will truly appreciate.
Why you'll love this cookie
These iced coffee biscuits taste a lot like sweetened cappuccinos. There’s lots of coffee flavor both in the biscuit and in the icing.
This cookie dough is made with both brewed coffee and ground coffee which gives the dough a brown speckled appearance. Then the dough is rolled thin for cookies that start out crisp and remain firm for over a week.
The brown icing is flavored with brewed coffee. White icing is swirled into the brown icing to give the finished biscuits a beautiful marbled appearance.
The marbling looks amazing but it’s very simple to create. I got the idea for this icing from my friend Chris, at The Café Sucre Farine, the queen of marbled icing. She has created marbled iced cookies for a variety of holidays.
Coffee biscuits are a delicious treat any time you are in the mood for coffee. They also make great gifts and welcome additions to college or military care packages!
Instructions
This is an overview of the instructions. The full instructions are in the recipe card below.
- Using an electric mixer, cream the butter until very soft.
- Mix in the sugar, then add the flour and ground coffee.
- Stir in the brewed coffee to form a soft, pliable dough.
- Roll out the dough between two sheets of parchment paper to 4 mm (a little less than ¼”) thickness. Cut out rectangles.
- Place the parchment with the cutout dough in the freezer for 2-3 minutes to firm the dough for easy handling.
- Transfer the cutouts to a parchment paper lined cookie sheet.
- Bake for 18-20 minutes at 300° F until edges begin to brown.
- Cool cookies completely on wire racks before icing.
- In a shallow soup bowl, mix together coffee icing ingredients until the consistency of white glue.
- In a small bowl, mix together the white icing ingredients until the consistency of white glue.
- To make marbled icing, place three teaspoons of white icing on top of the coffee icing and swirl minimally with a toothpick.
- Dip a cookie into the surface of the swirled icing, lift, and shake gently to remove excess. Repeat marbling for each cookie.
- Place iced cookies on a wire rack to dry overnight.
Tips and variations
- Uniform dough thickness is key in order for all of the cookies to bake evenly. I use a rolling pin with rings to keep my dough equal thickness.
- To add an even stronger coffee flavor without adding bitterness, add 1 teaspoon of coffee extract to the coffee icing. Coffee extract makes the icing taste like Kahlua liquor.
- To easily transfer the thin cutout rectangles onto the cookie sheet, firm the cutouts for just 2-3 minutes in the freezer.
- Coffee Cookies make great presents, stacked and packaged in cellophane bags or arranged in a gift tin.
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Tools and ingredients
More recipes baking with coffee
Chocolate Espresso Biscotti is crunchy enough for dunking and light enough for munching on their own. This super flavorful cookie makes wonderful gifts and care package treats.
This Chocolate Espresso Spritz Cookies recipe works beautifully in a cookie press to quickly make dozens of delicious chocolate espresso cookies in eye catching shapes and designs.
Espresso Shortbread Cookies will melt in your mouth! These cookies are packed with chocolate and coffee flavor.
Chocolate Chip Mocha Cookies are chewy mocha cookies with crispy edges and big chunks of chocolate.
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Coffee Biscuits
Ingredients
Cookies
- ½ cup (1 stick) unsalted butter
- ⅓ cup ultra fine bakers sugar or granulated sugar
- 1 ⅓ cups all-purpose flour
- ½ tablespoon finely ground coffee not instant coffee
- 4 teaspoons brewed coffee
White Icing
- 1 cup confectioners’ sugar
- 1 tablespoon corn syrup
- 1-2 tablespoons water or milk
Coffee Icing
- 1 cup confectioners’ sugar
- 1 tablespoon corn syrup
- 1 teaspoon espresso powder
- 2 tablespoons hot brewed coffee
Instructions
Cookies
- Preheat oven to 300° Line a cookie sheet with parchment paper.
- In the bowl of a stand mixer using the paddle attachment, cream butter until soft and smooth.
- Mix in the sugar.
- Add the flour and the ground coffee and mix until combined.
- While mixing, add the brewed coffee one teaspoon at a time just until a soft dough is formed. The dough should hold together and should not be sticky.
- Roll out the dough to 4mm (between ⅛” and ¼”) between two sheets of parchment. Cut into rectangles (2 ¾” x 1 ¾”) using a cookie cutter or knife.
- To make the cookies easy to move, slide the parchment paper with the dough onto a cookie sheet or cutting board and freeze for 2-3 minutes to firm. When firm, the rectangles will easily transfer onto the prepared baking sheets, 1”-2”inches apart, using a small spatula.
- Repeat until all of the dough has been cut into rectangles.
- Bake cookies in a preheated oven for 18-20 minutes until the edges just begin to turn golden brown.
- Remove from the oven and allow to cool for 1-2 minutes on the cookie sheet before transferring to wire cooling racks. Cool completely before icing.
Coffee Icing
- In a small bowl dissolve the espresso powder in 2 tablespoons hot brewed coffee.
- In a shallow soup bowl, add the confectioners’ sugar and corn syrup. Stir in 1 tablespoon of the coffee mixture. Add additional coffee in ½ teaspoon amounts until the icing is the consistency of white glue.
White Icing
- In a separate bowl, stir together the confectioners’ sugar, corn syrup, and 1 tablespoon of water or milk. Add additional water or milk in ½ teaspoon amounts until the icing is the consistency of white glue.
Marbled Icing
- Place 3 teaspoon sized portions of the white icing onto the surface of the coffee icing.
- Use the tip of a toothpick to gently swirl the dots of white icing with just two or three strokes.
- Holding a cookie by the edges, barely dip the top of the cookie into the surface of the coffee icing over the swirled white icing.
- Lift the cookie straight up and gently shake over the bowl to remove excess icing.
- Turn over the cookie, icing up, and place on a wire rack.
- Repeat the marbling and dipping with all of the cookies.
- Let the icing firm for at least 4 hours, preferably overnight, before storing.
- Store at room temperature in an airtight container with wax paper between layers for at least 10 days.
Notes
- Uniform dough thickness is key in order for all of the cookies to bake evenly. I use a rolling pin with rings to keep my dough equal thickness.
- To add an even stronger coffee flavor without adding bitterness, add 1 teaspoon of coffee extract to the coffee icing. Coffee extract makes the icing taste like Kahlua liquor.
- If brewed coffee is not available, make a cup of coffee using instant coffee granules and hot water.
- To easily transfer the thin cutout rectangles onto the cookie sheet, firm the cutouts for just 2-3 minutes in the freezer.
- Coffee Cookies make great presents, stacked and packaged in cellophane bags or arranged in a gift tin.
Nutrition
First Published: August 1, 2019. Last Updated: September 4, 2021. Updated for additional information and better reader experience.
saltandserenity
Coffee flavoured cookies are one of my favourites. These look so delicious. Will be baking them very soon.
Tina Spears
These cookies were a big hit. I did notice the amount of coffee in the cookie must be off because it took way more then 4 teaspoons to make it a soft dough. We made more today and used 4 Tablespoons instead of teaspoons of coffee and it worked perfectly. Already have requests from family and friends for more coffee cookies ?
Wendy Sondov
Hi Tina! I'm so glad you enjoyed these cookies. I am not sure why your dough has required such a huge amount of liquid. I just made another batch of these on Sunday and my 4 teaspoons was perfect. The only thing I can think of is that, because American recipes use cup measurements instead of more accurate weight measurements, perhaps your method measuring the flour ends up with more flour in the dough? If you scoop flour it compresses and you end up with a lot more flour than if you fluff then spoon the flour into the measuring cup. If that's not the case, I have no answer. The bottom line is that you made the dough work and the cookies turned out! Thank you for taking the time to write about your experience! I appreciate your feedback!