Espresso walnut cookies

With all of the searching for a house and everything, I haven't had much opportunity to bake this past week or two. Last week Marie came by, our insurance lady, and I thought I would whip up some cookies to have with our tea/coffee.

I usually make a few alterations to the recipe. The recipe says to put teaspoons of the mixture, well apart on a greased baking sheet. I add a little more flour at the end to make the mixture firm enough for me to roll into small balls and shape them slightly. I like to make them slightly oval shaped and score them with a knife so that they slightly resemble coffee beans. The other thing I sometimes do is to dip them in chocolate or half dip them, which I did with some of these but unfortunately they didn't last long enough for a picture!

About the greased baking sheet: I don't usually do this because as you notice there is a lot of butter in the cookies anyway and I have never had them stick to the baking sheet. But do whatever you feel.

Oven temperatures vary, of course. My cookies usually take a good couple of minutes LESS than the amount it states in the recipe. You know your ovens. It is better to err on the side of caution than to overcook them.

Recipe for Espresso Walnut Cookies

100g butter, softened
50g sugar
50g walnuts, finely chopped
100g flour
2 tsp espresso coffee powder

Cream the butter and sugar until light in color and creamy looking
Add walnuts. Stir in flour and coffee powder.
Put 18-20 teaspoons of mixture, well apart on a greased baking sheet.
Bake at 190°C for 15 minutes.
Leave to cool for 1'-2' before transferring to a cooling rack.

Do you like my cooling rack by the way? It is from Lakeland and is very versatile. It has three separate racks but you can stack them which is great when you don't have much space. It also folds down to store away.

If you want to, instead of adding the espresso powder you can add chopped dried fruit. Today I added cranberries to some of mine. Or you could change the walnuts for chocolate chips and the cranberries for glace cherries.

Marie enjoyed them and promptly asked for the recipe.

Liz

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