Double Chocolate Espresso Cookies
This post may contain affiliate links. Please read my disclosure policy.
Every year around Mother’s Day, the wonderful people at Fair Trade work hard to share the stories about the many women behind their Fair Trade products. This year, their theme is: “FairHer: Celebrating the Women of Fair Trade.” One of the founding principles of Fair Trade is Women’s empowerment. In addition to freedom from harassment, Fair Trade certification ensures that women have a voice, a vote, and a leadership role in the community.
What is Fair Trade?
• Fair Trade helps farmers (more than 1.2 million worldwide) in developing countries build sustainable businesses that positively influence their communities.
• Products that bear the Fair Trade logo come from farmers and workers who are justly compensated.
• The rigorous Fair Trade standards ensure that farmers and workers enjoy safe working conditions, regulated work hours, maternity leave and freedom of association. Slave and child labor are strictly prohibited.
• Fair Trade ensures that farmers follow internationally monitored environmental standards and also provides financial incentives and resources for organic conversion, reforestation, water conservation and environmental education.
• Fair Trade empowers women to play an active role in their families and in their co-ops by starting businesses with guaranteed access to health care, certain job rights and freedom from harassment.
• Fair Trade supports education with revenues set aside to build schools and maintain enrollment.
Fortaleza del Valle Cooperative
As in previous years, to help tell the stories about the people behind their food, Fair Trade has paired every blogger participating in this event with a farmer. Meet my match: Mariana del Jesus Mendoza, a cocoa farmer & member of the Fortaleza del Valle Cooperative in Ecuador.
Mariana notes: “Thanks to Fair Trade we are able to sell our cacao at fair and stable prices. Before we were organized into Fortaleza del Valle, many of us did not know how to take true advantage of our plants’ capacities and would ruin them with pesticides and fungicides.”
Cookie monsters …
PrintDouble-Chocolate Espresso Cookies
- Total Time: 24 hours 30 minutes
- Yield: 35 cookies
Description
This recipe is an adaptation from my favorite soft and chewy chocolate chip cookie with some of the flour replaced by cocoa powder and the addition of two teaspoons of finely ground coffee.
Note: For best results, make the dough ahead of time: after mixing the dough, portion it into 48 g balls and refrigerate the balls in an airtight container for at least 24 hours and up to 1 week.
Ingredients
- 1⅓ cups (305 g) unsalted butter, softened
- 1½ cups packed (291 g) light brown sugar
- 1 cup (220 g) granulated sugar
- 2 large eggs
- 1 T. pure vanilla extract
- 3 cups (384 g) unbleached all-purpose flour
- ¼ cup (28 g) unsweetened cocoa powder
- 1.5 tsp table salt
- 1 tsp. baking soda
- 2 tsp. finely ground coffee beans or espresso powder
- 12 oz. bittersweet chocolate chips
- flaky sea salt for sprinkling, optional
Instructions
- Cream butter and sugars together in the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, until light and fluffy. Scrape the bowl, beat again on high for one minute. Add the eggs and vanilla and beat until well blended, about another minute on medium-high speed. Whisk flour, cocoa, salt, baking soda, and ground coffee beans together in separate bowl. Add to butter mixture and combine with a spatula or wooden spoon (or very briefly with paddle attachment) until just blended. Add the chocolate chips and stir till combined. The dough will be stiff.
- Portion into 1¾ oz (48 g) sized balls. This is a tedious task, but it makes for beautiful and uniform cookies that bake evenly. If you have a digital scale, this is easy; if you have no scale, use a small ice cream scoop or some other uniform measuring device. Chill the portioned balls for at least one hour but preferably 24 hours. Keep portioned balls in the fridge for up to 1 week or freeze for months.
- Preheat oven to 375°. Place portioned balls nicely spaced on an ungreased or parchment-lined jelly roll pan. Sprinkle with sea salt if using. Bake for 11 minutes, rotating the sheet halfway through cooking. Keep a close watch. You want to remove the cookies from the oven when they still look slightly raw—you will think you are removing them too early. The cookies will continue cooking as they sit on the tray out of the oven. Let cookies cool completely on tray before removing.
- Prep Time: 24 hours minutes
- Cook Time: 11 minutes
- Category: Cookie
- Method: Oven
- Cuisine: American
This post may contain affiliate links. Please read my disclosure policy.
151 Comments on “Double Chocolate Espresso Cookies”
Wow, what great products, and the cookies look delicious!
Yum… these cookies just came out of the oven… and they are as delicious as the batter tasted!!! I added some sliced almonds, a bit more coffee grounds (which might have been left out in the directions, but I added with the sifted ingredients) and milk chocolate Guittard organic baking wafers.
I pinned this recipe and will definitely be making it again… soon.
Happy Mother’s Day!!!
And many thanks for your beautiful blog.
Wow, Lynn, impressively fast work!! So happy these turned out well for you, and thank you for pointing out the missing instruction – I fixed the recipe!
Fair Trade products are awesome and I love what they stand for. Also, the cookies look delicious as per usual! 🙂
These cookies look fantastic. So super chocolatey. Thanks for the giveaway opportunity!
Those cookies look delicious!
Enjoyed meeting your match, Mariana del Jesus Mendoza and what is that she is holding? thanks for the giveaway.
A cacao pod! Isn’t that crazy? That’s what chocolate comes from.
I always try to buy fair trade products when I can and these cookies look delish!
I love reading your blog, the recipe looks delicious! Thanks for such a nice giveaway!
These cookies look yummy!
The cookies look delicious and the little cookie monsters just made my Mother’s Day!
Yum! Thanks for the recipe, and giveaway!
Happy Mother’s Day to you and Mariana, These are perfect memory making cookies!
Thank you for the opportunity to win the wonderful goodies. Happy Mother’s Day to everyone….
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Very interesting and informative blog post with great photos and recipe! Thank you for the giveaway opportunity.
I love that Numi tea. Great post!
Great info in your post, thank you!
Chocolate! Divine!
Thank you for the chance to win!
Yum! Now I’m going to be thinking about cookies and chocolate all day while at work today.
Love the fact that you are promoting Fair Trade products! I try to use them as much as possible in my own baking. The cookies and the little hands holding them look delicious and I can’t wait to try them!
This looks delicious!
Thanks as always for this amazing recipe and fair trade….bark thins are a priority in the grocery carriage – and all the other brands in the prize look great. I hope I win but otherwise it’s great to know of new items.
Thank you for supporting fair trade! Your kiddos are absolutely adorable. Thanks for the recipe!
These look delicious! Can’t wait to try them. Also, your littles are so precious :).
I love fair trade products and I love the look of these cookies!
I came on your blog to get your ciabatta recipe to make this afternoon, but my sweet tooth got the best of me, and now I must make these cookies 🙂
Recipe=pinned and I can’t wait to get started!
My husband and I have tried to start only buying fair trade chocolate and coffee. It means we buy a fair bit less chocolate than we used to (however, no cut back on the coffee ;)) And that makes buying fair trade even more special and celebratory.
Love this, Beth! What a great way to “vote with your dollar!”
i love your commitment to fair trade! great cookies, and your cookie monsters couldn’t be cuter. 🙂
Minus the espresso, may have to try these! (did your kiddo cookie monsters get zoomy?)
Really pleased to see connections to Fair Trade products, resources, and endeavours. Have “Shared” the #FairHer site with my friends, as we’re always interested in getting the best deals, with the best community support/activism. (and helping women is an added bonus!)
Haha, I love it: zoomy … great word 🙂 Actually, no! Amazingly, they didn’t.
fair trade is so important! Thanks for sharing!