I love the taste of chocolate mixed with coffee. In desserts. But not in beverages. That’s right, I don’t care for mocha in beverage form. But I cannot get enough of it in desserts.

Coffee in its various forms (actual coffee/espresso, Kahlua or espresso powder) is probably my favorite flavor to add to chocolate desserts (although peanut butter is hot on coffee’s tail). I’m heavy handed with coffee in any dessert that calls for it and quite frequently I throw a tablespoon of espresso powder into any recipe I make that contains chocolate. In my opinion, the addition of coffee amplifies the chocolate flavor.

So, a couple of weeks ago when we needed a super quick dessert made, this recipe for mocha nut balls was an easy choice. I’d eaten them before at someone else’s house so I knew they were delicious. The cookies themselves are a dark and caffeinated version of the ever popular Mexican wedding cookies. They’re extremely easy to make and as long as you like pecans, coffee and chocolate, you’ll love them. I made the mistake of sharing a few with coworkers and they’ve been asking for more ever since.

The recipe I used is from the Taste of Home website and I think it was originally featured in their print magazine. The only alteration I made was my substitution of 1 1/2 tablespoons espresso powder for the 1 tablespoon of instant coffee granules called for in the recipe. My reason? I prefer espresso over regular coffee.

Mocha Nut Balls

Recipe from Taste of Home

Makes about 50 cookies

Ingredients

• 1 cup butter, softened
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 1-3/4 cups all-purpose flour
• 1/3 cup baking cocoa
• 1 tablespoon instant coffee granules (I used espresso powder.)
• 1 cup finely chopped pecans or walnuts
• Confectioners’ sugar

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 325°.
2. In a large bowl, cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in vanilla.
3. Combine the flour, cocoa and coffee granules.
4. Gradually add to creamed mixture and mix well.
5. Stir in pecans.
6. Roll into 1-in. balls. Place 2 in. apart on ungreased baking sheets.
7. Bake at 325° for 14-16 minutes or until firm. Cool on pans for 1-2 minutes before removing to wire racks.
8. Roll warm cookies in confectioners’ sugar.

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I love flipping through magazines in search of recipes. Over the years I’ve become pretty selective about which ones I actually clip and file for later. Despite my selectivity, the vast majority of the recipes I clip are never made. Then there are the recipes that look so delicious that I make them before they’re ever clipped from the magazine.

These Peanut Butter Cup Cookies were one of those recipes. As soon as I saw these in the latest issue of Real Simple, I knew they would be made. Quickly. Like 2 days later…which was as soon as I could actually justify making another dessert. This recipe was not one that would linger in the binder for years without ever being made. This was a recipe capable of cutting in front of all the other recipes that have been patiently waiting in line for months (or even years).

If you like Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups (and I do), these are for you. The dough in these cookies is secondary to the Reese’s Cups and I’m okay with that. They’re super easy to make. The hardest part is chopping the Reese’s Cups. If you’re not really a fan of Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups or peanut butter, you probably won’t enjoy these as much as I did.

I made only a few modifications to the original recipe. I added a little bit of peanut butter to the dough and I used regular sized Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups instead of mini ones. I prefer the peanut butter to chocolate ratio in the regular sized Reese’s Cups. But if you like the smaller ones better, use them.

This recipe uses a LOT of Reese’s Cups and that could get expensive…but Halloween is approaching and you should be able to find a jumbo-sized bag of them on sale soon!

Peanut Butter Cup Cookies

Adapted from recipe in Real Simple magazine, October 2009.

Makes about 30 cookies

Ingredients

• 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
• 1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, softened
• 3/4 cup dark brown sugar
• 1/2 cup granulated sugar
• 1/4 cup peanut butter
• 1 large egg
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• about 16 regular-sized Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups, coarsely chopped

Directions

1. Heat oven to 350 degrees.
2. Line 2 cookie sheets with parchment paper.
3. Whisk together the flour, baking soda and salt in a large bowl.
4. Beat the butter and sugars until creamy with an electric mixer. Add the egg, vanilla and peanut butter and beat to combine.
5. Gradually add the flour mixture and mix until just incorporated.
6. Fold in the chopped peanut butter cups.
7. Drop tablespoon-size balls of dough 2 inches apart onto the parchment lined cookie sheets.
8. Bake until light brown around the edges, about 10-12 minutes.
9. Transfer to baking rack and cool.
10. Store in an airtight container for up to 3 days.

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So, I posted a picture of these oatmeal sandwich cookies here months ago as a Wordless Wednesday post. The picture was popular and requests (or demands) were made for the recipe. I intended to post the recipe but I goofed and didn’t have a legible copy of it and the cookbook had been returned to the library. I apologized for this and got a little grief from some of my readers for it.

Fast forward to now. The book was finally available at the library. The recipe is posted below and I’m very very very sorry for the delay.

These cookies are pretty similar to Little Debbie Oatmeal Creme Pies. If you enjoyed those as a kid, bake these cookies. If you never had them, bake these cookies…as long as you like oatmeal.

I baked these again tonight and made a slight change to the recipe that I didn’t make the first time I made them. The filling recipe calls for 1/2 cup vegetable shortening. The first time I made these, we could definitely tell that there was shortening in the filling. I’ve got no problems with shortening but I don’t really want to taste it in my food. So when I made the filling today, I used 1/4 cup shortening and 1/4 cup margarine. This did the trick…it didn’t alter the texture of the filling at all but it did eliminate the Crisco taste in the filling. Please note that I did not change the amount of butter in the filling!

The only other change I made to the recipe is that I made smaller cookies.

The recipe below is the original recipe as originally printed in The All-American Cookie Book by Nancy Baggett. I have added a few parenthetical notes about the recipe.

“Old-Timey” Oatmeal Sandwich Cookies

From The All-American Cookie Book by Nancy Baggett

Ingredients

Cookies:

• 2 2/3 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
• 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 3/4 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• generous 1 3/4 cups packed light brown sugar
• 1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, slightly softened
• 2/3 cup vegetable shortening
• 1 1/2 tablespoons light corn syrup
• 3 large eggs
• 2 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 1 1/2 cups old-fashioned rolled oats

Filling:

• 3/4 cup powdered sugar
• 2/3 cup (1 stick, plus 2 2/3 tablespoons) unsalted butter, slightly softened
• 1/2 cup vegetable shortening (See my substitution suggestion in the text above.)
• 1 1/2 tablespoons light corn syrup
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 1/8 teaspoon salt
• 1 jar (1 1/3 cups) marshmallow creme (Marshmallow fluff!!)

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease several baking sheets or coat with nonstick spray. (I used sheets of parchment paper instead.)
2. In a medium bowl, thoroughly stir together the flour, cinnamon, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Set aside.
3. In a large bowl, with an electric mixer on high speed, beat together the brown sugar, butter, shortening, and corn syrup until well blended and lightened, about 1 1/2 minutes.
4. Add the eggs, one at a time, then the vanilla, and beat until very light and fluffy, about 2 minutes.
5. Beat in half of the flour mixture.
6. Beat or stir in the remaining flour mixture and the oats until evenly incorporated.
7. Drop the dough onto the baking sheets using a 1/8-cup measure or coffee scoop, spacing about 3 inches apart. Using a lightly greased hand, pat down the cookies just slightly. (I used a cookie scoop for this and made slightly smaller cookies.)
8. Bake the cookies, one sheet at a time, in the middle of the oven for 9 to 12 minutes, or until lightly browned and barely firm when lightly pressed in the centers. Reverse the sheet from front to back halfway through to ensure even browning.
9. Transfer the sheet to a wire rack and let stand until the cookies firm up slightly, about 2 minutes. Using a spatula, transfer the cookies to wire racks. Let stand until completely cooled. (Because I used parchment paper, the spatula wasn’t necessary as the cookies could easily be lifted off the parchment.)
10. In a large bowl, with an electric mixer on medium speed, beat together the powdered sugar, butter, shortening, corn syrup, vanilla and salt until well blended and fluffy. Add the marshmallow creme and beat until well blended and smooth.
11. Place half of the cookies underside up. Spoon a generous 2 tablespoons filling in the center of each cookie. Spread the filling to within 1/2 inch of the edge. Cover each with a second cookie of about the same size. Gently press down so the filling almost extends to the edges. (Be generous with the filling. You will have enough.)
12. Store in individual plastic bags in the refrigerator for up to 1 week or freeze for up to 1 month. Let come to room temperature before serving. (Individual plastic bags seems really wasteful to me…a large plastic container in the fridge worked for me.)

Recipe note as printed in cookbook: Dough that is too warm may yield cookies that spread too much. If the baked cookies on your first sheet are more than about 3 1/4 inches across, refrigerate the remaining dough for a few minutes before continuing. This will produce slightly sturdier, more compact rounds, which are better suited for sandwiches.

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