TBB - Almond Coffee Crisps

Another round of cookies for us, Rose's Alpha Bakers. And what a special cookie it was. The Almond Coffee Crisps looked so plain and casual, but boy, did it pack a lot of flavor. It has finely chopped almond, espresso powder and lots of butter.

Light as air, crispy, melt-in-your-mouth Almond Coffee Crisps

After learning about the issues that some of the Alpha Bakers had (cookie spreading too much, cookie resembling a lace cookie, etc), I decided to make some changes. Not sure if it was necessary, but I was happy with the end result.

Instead of the food processor, I used my KA stand mixer. I find that it does a better job of creaming butter and sugar. I made sure I used UNbleached AP flour instead of the usual bleached flour. The other change I made was to use almond meal because of the finer texture than the almonds you grind yourself. The instant espresso powder was reduced to 1 tsp because I'm not a coffee drinker and only like a mild coffee flavor in my baked goods. I figured I should reduce the sugar in the cookie since there's less "bitterness" from the espresso. I reduced it by 10% (120 gr total).

My first batch was pressed into two different thicknesses to see which ones baked up better. After the cookies were baked, there was no difference in thickness.

 Into my 325 F degree convection oven they went for about 12-13 minutes total.

They puffed quite a bit in the oven. I kinda wished they stayed that way.

They flattened after being removed from the oven.

Beautiful golden brown color on the bottom.

Packaged them up to take them with me to a dinner party where they were enjoyed by the adults (not so much the kids, 2yrs, 8yrs, and 10yrs). The 10 year old stated they were a bit salty. I can see why he said that. The amount of salt used is fairly small, however, the 1/2 Tbsp of baking packs a lot of sodium.

A plate full of yumminess. Bon Appetit!

Final thoughts/tips:

• All the adults liked them. The only comment I received was that they were a big too sweet, even though I reduced the sugar by 10%. I actually agree with that comment and will reduce the sugar amount more next time. Hubby is not a fan of crispy cookies. He's more into thick and soft/chewy cookies. He did like the flavor of this cookie so he gave it an 8 out of 10 rating.
• I personally liked the cookie a lot, even though I don't like coffee. The coffee flavor definitely came through, even with the reduced amount that I used, however, I found that it overpowered the almond flavor. The texture was amazing. Light, crispy, with a melt-in-your-mouth feel to it. I will definitely reduce the amount of sugar more next time.
• One observation I made was that the first third of the dough (that's baked immediately) baked flatter than the two thirds of dough that sat in the fridge for about 15-20 min. The difference in height I measured was 1/4" vs 3/8". Next time, I'll give the entire dough a little chill in the fridge.