Vietnamese Coffee Cookies
One of my goals in life is to be the mom that bakes the best cookies, but motherhood hasn’t happened for me so I am content with being the aunt that makes the best cookies. My nephew constantly FaceTime me to ask if we could bake cookies. Recently, my sister told my nephew that he had to share me because I am “Auntie” to many of my friends’ children and he goes, “but you can’t make them cookies, okay?” I guess they are just too good to share.
The flavor profile of Cafe Sua Da (iced coffee with condensed milk) is something near and dear to my heart. When I had a Vietnamese Coffee flavored doughnut from a local doughnut shop, I thought why not make a cookie version? A shortbread cookie with that chicory coffee flavor and sweetened condensed milk frosting—that you could dip it into your morning coffee, oh yeah.
The original recipe I developed was a shortbread cookie with a buttercream condensed milk frosting drizzled with chocolate. The frosting didn’t set well and was a little too messy for my preference. I ended up changing it to a sugar cookie base with a condensed milk icing. I substituted the regular ground coffee with Cafe Du Monde chicory coffee. It was just missing that smokiness from the chicory. The final recipe is followed…
Ingredients
For the cookies:
2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
3/4 cup butter, unsalted
3/4 cup granulated white sugar
1 large egg
2 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 tsp coffee extract
1 Tbsp coffee grounds
For the icing:
3 Tbsp meringue powder
6 Tbsp condensed milk
1 tsp coffee extract
4 cups powdered sugar, sifted
For the chocolate:
2 ounces chocolate baking squares
In a large bowl, beat the butter and sugar together on high speed until completely smoothly, about 2 minutes. Add the egg, vanilla extract, and coffee extract and beat for another minute until combined. Add the dry ingredients: flour, baking powder, salt, and ground coffee to the wet ingredients then mix on low speed until combined.
Divide the dough into two equal parts. Place each portion onto a piece of lightly floured parchment paper or a lightly floured silicone baking mat. Roll the dough out to about 1/4-inch thickness with a floured rolling pin. Place a piece of saran wrap to cover then refrigerate for about an hour.
Preheat oven to 350F degrees. Line baking sheets with parchment paper or silicone mats. Remove the chilled dough for the refrigerator. Using a cookie cutter, cut the dough into shapes. Arrange cookies on baking sheets about 2 inches apart. Bake for 11-12 minutes or until it’s lightly browned around the edges. Allow to cool before icing.
To make the icing, let the condense milk and meringue whip on high until it gets super frothy, about 2-4 minutes. Then add the powdered sugar and let it whip for another 7-10 minutes and add the coffee extract. The icing should appear thick, slowly add more condense milk until it’s the right consistency for flooding. Put icing in a disposable piping bag for ease of decorating. Once the cookies have cooled, decorate the cookies with the icing. Allow the icing to dry before drizzling with chocolate.
Seal the chocolate baking squares in a zip lock bag and place in water bath, heat in the microwave for about 1-2 minutes until melted. Drizzle over cookies or in any design pattern you desire.
