Vietnamese Coffee Cookies

I love the taste of coffee. Unfortunately, I have a painfully low tolerance for caffeine — a quarter cup is plenty enough to give me the jitters. So as a general rule, I try to stay away from it. There is, however, one situation in which I just can’t help myself: Vietnamese Coffee.

Extra bold coffee from dark-roasted beans is slow-dripped on top of a layer of thick, sweet and sticky condensed milk. Freshly brewed, the liquid coffee and dense milk remain separated, like oil and water in a glass. But mixed and swirled together, the result is a heavenly balanced blend of bitter and sweet, coffee and cream. The consistency is thicker than your traditional coffee with cream, it almost has the texture of a melted milkshake. It’s decadent and an indulgence for sure.

These Vietnamese coffee cookies have a sweet and creamy cookie base, made using condensed milk, of course. And ground coffee beans are rippled into the dough to create ribbons of bitter boldness that balance the sugary base. They’re both creamy and coffee loaded, just like the drink, so prepare for a little caffeine boost with every bite!

The Recipe

Makes about 14 cookies (🔥Portion Control)

Ingredients

½ cup (114 grams; 1 stick) unsalted butter, melted

2 tablespoons strong, freshly brewed dark roast coffee (🔥Authentic Brew)

½ teaspoon vanilla extract

¼ cup (80 grams) sweetened condensed milk

½ cup (100 grams) granulated sugar

1 ½ cups (187 grams) unbleached all-purpose flour

½ teaspoon salt

¾ teaspoon baking soda

1 tablespoon ground dark roasted coffee beans (🔥Crunch Master)

You will also need:

Ice

Cold water

Instructions

1. Preheat the oven to 380°F and line a baking tray with a silpat or parchment paper (🎩Feelin’ Hot Hot Hot).

Combine dry ingredients

1. In a medium bowl combine the flour, salt and baking soda; stir, then set aside.

Combine wet ingredients

1. In a medium-sized metal bowl, or the metal bowl of a stand mixer, combine the melted butter, brewed coffee, and vanilla (🎩Material Matters)

2. Fill a wide bowl with some ice water, then set the metal mixing bowl into the water so that the bottom is submerged.

3. Whisk the butter mixture until it’s pale and thickens to the consistency of condensed milk. Remove from the ice bath.

4. Add the condensed milk, then beat until well mixed. Add the sugar and beat again until fully incorporated.

Finish and scoop the dough

If you have a cookie scoop

1. Pour the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients, then stir until the flour is fully incorporated (🎩Sir Don’t Mix A Lot).

2. Sprinkle ½ of the ground coffee onto the surface of the dough.

3. Scoop the dough into balls (scooping down rather than across the top), ensuring that that each cookie contains some of the sprinkled coffee grounds. Drop the cookies 2 inches apart on the cookie tray. Sprinkle the second ½ of the coffee grounds before scooping the second layer of dough.

If you do not have a cookie scoop

1. Pour the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients, then stir until the flour is 98% incorporated (🎩Sir Don’t Mix A Lot).

2. Sprinkle ½ of the coffee grounds onto the surface of the dough, then stir the dough 2 times. You are looking to create ripples of coffee grounds so do not stir more than twice! Sprinkle some of the remaining coffee grounds where the dough looks bare.

3. When scooping the dough, aim for golfball-sized portions: use a tablespoon to scoop the dough, then use the inside of another tablespoon to push the dough off of the first spoon, roughly creating the shape of a ball. Drop the cookies 2 inches apart. Continue scooping, adding more coffee grounds where the dough looks bare.

Bake and cool

1. Turn the temperature down to 360°F.

2. Bake the cookies for 10-12 minutes. Take them out when there’s just a kiss of golden brown in some areas on the top of the cookie or along the edges where the cookie meets the sheet. Do not wait until the entire cookie is brown or they will be overcooked. The middle of the cookie should still look a little underdone.

3. Cool the cookies on the baking sheet for 3-5 minutes, then move to a wire rack to cool completely.

Enjoy!

Hot Tips 🔥

• PORTION CONTROL — For best results, use a #40 cookie scoop which have a 1½ tablespoon capacity.

• AUTHENTIC BREW — Vietnamese coffee is traditionally brewed with either 100% dark-roasted arabica or robusta beans. If you have either of these beans, by all means use them! But if not, this recipe works great with dark roasted coffee beans of any origin. Just be sure not to use instant espresso as this is will NOT produce the right flavor!

• CRUNCH MASTER — If you don’t like the crunchy texture of eating coffee beans, use fine grounds, like for espressos. For more texture, coarse grind, like for french presses, is lovely.

Tricks 🎩

• FEELIN’ HOT HOT HOT — These cookies should be baked at 360°F; however, when opening the oven door to put the cookies in, the temperature will drop. I like to pre-heat to a higher temperature so that when the it drops, the residual heat is roughly correct. Just be sure to adjust the temperature down once they’re in or else the oven will heat back up to 380°F!

• MATERIAL MATTERS — It’s important that the bowl you put the butter in is made of metal, since metal transfers heat quickly. That said, if you only have a small metal bowl, you may use it, transferring the butter to a larger mixing bowl after it has been cooled. If you don’t have a metal bowl, you may use a glass bowl but it will take significantly longer for the butter to cool.

• SIR DON’T MIX A LOT — Over-mixing will give you tough cookies. To prevent over-mixing be sure to 1) mix the bottom of the bowl and 2) stop mixing the moment there is no longer dry flour in the dough mixture.

Recipe Video