These Coffee Cookies are light as air, delicately crispy, loaded with chunks of coffee beans and hazelnuts, and not too sweet! The best thing? They are easy to make and only require a handful of ingredients!
Meet coffee’s new best friend. In addition to how simple and delicious these cookies are, they are easily made in advance.
I know I mention how much I love coffee, and adding chunks of coffee beans to my cookies sounds like something I would do!
Before we get into details of this recipe, I will say this is not made using instant coffee or any fancy espresso powder. The crunch is simply coffee beans that I crush.
You’ll notice that this post has been updated to include TWO coffee cookie recipes. One of them is thin and crisp (above), while the other one is puffy and chewy (below). The ingredients are practically the same, except for the almond flour and the technique is different for both.
I was experimenting with the recipe over time and noticed that some prefer the chewy while others preferred the crisp coffee cookies. So I figured why not include BOTH?
COFFEE COOKIES
Those coffee cookies remind me of an Amaretti cookie, but thinner and crispier with plenty of crushed hazelnuts for the crisp one. The chewy one has a sweet chew.
For the coffee in these coffee cookies recipe, I use crushed coffee beans. Your favorite brand and flavor is what you’ll use here.
I added plenty of crushed hazelnuts because that’s where I got the inspiration. I used to have crispy hazelnut cookies like those when I was a kid in Paris. I remember them vividly! The coffee is obviously because I LOVE coffee!
This is a side by side comparison of both cookies when we say Crisp versus Chewy!
Now let’s start making Coffee Cookies!!
To crush your coffee beans you’ll need a ziploc and a rolling pin or kitchen hammer.
Place the beans in a ziploc and crush them until coarse. You want the texture of coffee beans to be coarser than the coffee you use at your coffee machine. See image below.
You’ll be repeating the same crushing procedure with your nuts. For today’s coffee cookies recipe I used hazelnuts. While you can use absolutely any nuts you prefer (almonds, walnuts, pistachios are great).
The crushed hazelnuts should be slightly larger than the coffee.
MAKE COFFEE COOKIES RECIPE
We’ll cover both the thin coffee cookies and the thick ones. But first ingredients.
Ingredients for Coffee Cookies
- Egg
- Sugar
- Vanilla
- Almond Flour
- Coffee beans
- Nuts
- Salt
As simple as can be! The trick to achieve the texture and chew/crisp you want for your cookies is up to the technique you use! The video captures that perfectly.
For both cookies, you’ll start by the having your oven ready. Preheat your oven to 350 degrees.
Thin Coffee Cookies (crisp)
In a large bowl, add the egg, sugar, vanilla. Use an electric mixer to mix well until fluffy.
Add the crushed coffee beans, hazelnuts, salt and vanilla. Use a spatula to just blend those ingredients together.
Spoon about a tablespoon of cookie batter onto a parchment paper-lined baking sheet. A small ice cream scoop about 1 Tablespoon size works best for this! The batter as you can see is so thin and may start spreading into irregular shapes. Its’s ok!
Bake the Cookies for 15 minutes until they’ve set.
Now you’ll notice some of them have slightly irregular edges once baked and to fix that, you’ll need a cookie cutter. I use my 1 inch round cutter to press down over the cookie and trim off any irregular edges. This offers me excellent round shape to my cookies.
Chewy Coffee Cookies
The only difference in ingredients here is the amount of almond flour. As for the technique, well this one uses only a bowl and whisk! No electric mixer needed and no fluffing needed.
At that point, you’ll add in the coffee, nuts, lots of almond flour, vanilla and mix it in until the cookie batter is clumpy and thick (compared to the thin cookies).
Now use the same scoop, and scoop about 1 tablespoons batter to a baking sheet and bake. You’ll notice these don’t spread at all on the baking sheet, so they come out perfectly shaped.
Once they’re out, you don’t need the cookie cutter as we used in the crispy version, rather just cool the cookies and enjoy!
COFFEE COOKIE TIPS
- Make sure you chose which type of coffee cookie you’re making and follow the recipe and technique as there are some differences.
- Coffee is a must here if you’re a coffee lover, but make sure you don’t use instant coffee or instant espresso as it may dissolve into the batter.
- You can add any type of nut, chocolate chips, dried fruits or seeds to these Coffee Cookies.
- Make sure to not overbake the cookies as they might get a bit too crispy or dry out of chewy.
- Store these in a metal tin in a cool place.
COOKIE RECIPES
Healthy Oatmeal Raisin Cookies – the most made and talked about cookie recipe on my blog!
Loaded Chocolate Brownie Cookies – the cookie recipe that will change your life!
Nutella-Stuffed Chocolate Chip Cookies – the combo of nutella on the best chocolate chip cookies!
Holiday Maple Linzer Cookies – A classic!
Espresso Amaretti Cookies – Another coffee cookie!
Coffee Cookies
These Coffee Cookies are light as air, delicately crispy, loaded with chunks of coffee beans and hazelnuts, and not too sweet! Updated to include a chewy version!
Ingredients
- 1 egg
- 1/3 cup sugar
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
- 1/4 cup almond flour for the THIN COOKIES
- 1/2 cup Almond Flour for the CHEWY COOKIES
- 2-3 tablespoons crushed roasted coffee beans
- 2/3 cup crushed Hazelnuts
Instructions
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Preheat your oven to 350 degrees.
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To make the think cookies: Use an electric mixer and fluff up the sugar and egg until fluffy--2 minutes on high speed
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Add in the remaining ingredients (pay attention to the amount of almond flour for this type of cookies) and use a spatula to fold everything together.
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Scoop a tablespoon of cookie batter into a parchment lined baking sheet. The batter will spread into irregular shapes a little bit but that's ok!
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Bake the cookies for about 15 minutes until set.
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Once out of the oven, use a 2 inch round cookie cutter to cut off and trim the edges to a regular round shape.
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Enjoy!
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To make the thick chewy cookies: In a large bowl, add the egg, sugar, vanilla and whisk until blended.
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Add the crushed coffee beans, hazelnut and remaining ingredients. whisk the batter again.
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Spoon about a tablespoon of cookie batter onto a parchment paper-lined baking sheet and bake the cookies for 15 minutes until they've set.
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enjoy
Recipe Video
Recipe Notes
COOKIE TIPS
- Make sure you chose which type of coffee cookie you're making and follow the recipe and technique as there are some differences.
- Coffee is a must here if you're a coffee lover, but make sure you don't use instant coffee or instant espresso as it may dissolve into the batter.
- You can add any type of nut, chocolate chips, dried fruits or seeds to these Coffee Cookies.
- Make sure to not overbake the cookies as they might get a bit too crispy or dry out of chewy.
- Store these in a metal tin in a cool place.
The hazelnuts give these cookies a lovely crunch! Perfect with an espresso!
Cookies look fantastic! But recipe doesn’t say how much baking powder to use. Also, can I use regular flour instead of almond flour?
This has everything I love!
Me too Jacque!!
These would disappear in our house!
hahahaha I know what you mean!
Fun idea! Looks so yummy!
It’s so good!
Now this is my kind of cookie!! I am loving the flavors in these!! They are fantastic!
Thanks Katerina!!! I love them too 🙂
These are the perfect dessert!
Thanks Dee!!
I’ll take a dozen, please! <3
hahah Carrie go ahead!~
I simply cannot get enough of this! I highly recommend it to everyone!
Thanks so much Amanda!!!
Crunch Italian Cookies recipe is looking awesome, thank you for sharing this awesome Italian Cookies Recipe.
Hope you make them Selena!
Could I use less crushed coffee beans and add some dried tart cherries instead? How about adding toasted walnuts? Thanks so much.
I love coffee but am afraid the flavor might be too intense for others.
Hi Marcia, sure you can add any dried fruit or even extra crushed nuts if you prefer! The most important thing is to make sure the consistency of the dough is a paste like, so it shouldn’t be runny or spread on your baking sheet before baking, and it shouldn’t be too dry that it crumbles and doesn’t hold its’ shape. Also make sure your pan is lined up with silpat so the cherries don’t stick! and finally, ENJOY 🙂
Is this recipe gluten free?
Hi Mary, Yes if you use baking powder that’s gluten free 🙂
Looks great! I’m going to try it out. Do you have recommendations regarding using ground coffee instead of crushed coffee beans, maybe decrease the volume? Avoid entirely? Thanks!
Hi Sarah, if you’ll be using ground coffee then decrease it by half because it’ll be overpowering. At the same time, compensate with almond flour so the batter has the same consistency and doesn’t become too runny. By all means don’t avoid entirely –it’s all about the coffee here! 🙂
How did you ‘crush’ the coffee beans?
Nvm. Read the above comment
The recipe did not work at all ☹️ Complete fail
Do not know what I did wrong used almond meal it was very dry and did want to hold together. Help. How fine do you grind the coffee beans ? Help. I love cookies and I love coffee!!
Hey Debra, So Sorry to read this!! Ok so here’s what I’m thinking–what size of egg did you use? I used large, not extra large or jumbo.The Almond meal is used was finely ground (that’s how I bought it) and the coffee beans I crushed in a ziploc. Basically place your coffee beans in a ziploc, seal it and then take a rolling pin and roll it over the sealed ziploc to crush the coffee beans. Or you can use a food hammer and crush the coffee beans.
Another thing, the batter should not be runny. It should hold it’s shape, and spread a bit in the oven. Remove them from the oven when they set (but not harden).
Please try them again!! they’re seriously SO good and I know you’ll LOVE them!!! 🙂
Thanks so much Vivian! So glad you tried and loved it like I do!!! 🙂
Those Italian cookies are perfect for pairing with an at home latte. The best after-dinner treat. #client
So true Jane! I love them for a perfect morning fix 🙂