Coffee-Cardamom Cookies and Dorie’s Cookies

Dorie’s Cookies, written by Dorie Greenspan, features a variety of cookies and treats perfect for holiday baking, celebrations, and any other time of the year. From basic to international and sweet to savory, flavorful highlights include Salted Chocolate-Caramel Bars, Rose-Hibiscus Shortbread Fans, Vanilla-Brown Butter Madeleines, Coconut-Lime Sablés, and Puffed Grain and Miso Cookies. I will also be sharing her recipe for Coffee-Cardamom Cookies following the review.

Disclosure and Disclaimer:  I received a digital copy of Dorie’s Cookies in exchange for my honest review. All comments and opinions are my own. This post contains Amazon affiliate links. If you purchase something through the link, I may receive a small commission at no extra charge to you.

The optional glaze for the cookies includes an uncooked egg white. Use only an egg source you trust or pasteurized. It is recommended that young children, those who are pregnant, and those with a compromised immune system avoid uncooked eggs.

Dorie Greenspan

Dorie Greenspan is an IACP and James Beard award–winning chef and New York Times bestselling cookbook author based in Westbrook, Connecticut; New York City; and Paris, France.

She has been writing cookbooks for over 25 years including Sweet Times: Simple Desserts for Every Occasion, Baking: From My Home to Yours, Around My French Table: More Than 300 Recipes from My Home to Yours, and Everyday Dorie. Dorie also had a cookie boutique in New York with her son Joshua called Beurre & Sel. 

Dorie’s Cookies

Dorie’s Cookies is quite the colorful book with many of the pages and backgrounds for the cookies in bold purples, yellows, blues, and pinks.

Dorie begins with a guide to cookies from preparation and working with the ingredients to rolling, shaping, and baking the cookies. You will also find an overview of most common baking ingredients and tools. The book ends with a chapter on basics to accompany the cookies such as sauces, marshmallows, ice cream, spreads, and fillings.

Chapters are divided based on the type of cookie: Introduction; The Perfect-Cookie Handbook; Brownies, Bars, Break-Ups, and Biscotti; Cookies for Every Day, Any Day; Cookies for Weekends, Holidays, and Other Celebrations, The Beurre & Sel Collection; Cocktail Cookies; and Cookie Go-Alongs and Basics.

The photography is provided by Davide Luciano with styling by Claudia Ficca. Every single cookie includes a full page basic photo of the finished product.

Measurements are listed in US Customary and Metric. All of the cookies include a headnote with background information and personal stories. I love that Dorie also includes notes for storing the cookies. A few of the recipes are followed with possible variations in flavor or style.

Coffee-Cardamom Cookies

I was immediately drawn to the Coffee-Cardamom Cookies. These spiced cut-out cookies have ground coffee mixed right into the dough. They are baked until crisp and topped with an optional egg white glaze for a little extra sweetness.

Baking for 11-13 minutes will create a crisp cookie. To get a more chewy texture, bake them for a minute or two less.

The rolled out dough can be refrigerated for 4 days or frozen for 2 months. The glaze can be stored in an airtight container at room temperature for 4 days with a piece of plastic in contact with the surface. Store the cookies at room temperature in an airtight container for 5-7 days or frozen unglazed for 2 months.

Other Treats

I also made Sebastian’s Remarkably Wonderful Brownies, Moroccan Semolina and Almond Cookies, Gozinaki, and Parm Toasts.

Sebastian’s Remarkably Wonderful Brownies came from Dorie’s culinary pen-pal from Amsterdam, Sebastian. He developed the recipe as a baker in an Amsterdam coffee house. These chocolatey brownies have a creamy, chewy center with crisp edges. They were perfect for that chocolate craving.

The Moroccan Semolina and Almond Cookies, Ghrieba, are one of the many international additions scattered throughout the book. These cookies have a semolina and almond base with citrus and vanilla flavors. They are shaped into balls, then a thumbprint in the center of each cookie before baking causes the notable cracks (known as smiles) to form around the edges.

All the recipes I tried in Dorie’s book were delicious, but the Gozinaki were absolutely fantastic. Just one bite and I was hooked. Gozinaki are a cookie/confection from Georgia (the country). Walnuts are toasted, chopped, and mixed with a hot honey syrup. The mixture is spread across a flat surface and allowed to cool before slicing into diamonds.

Parm Toasts and some others in the Cocktail Cookie chapter add a bit of savory in the sea of sweet cookies. These Parm Toasts are a savory version of biscotti with olive oil, white wine, and shredded Parmesan cheese. The dough is formed into two logs, baked, then cut into slices to bake some more. The resulting little toasts are a perfect base for ham, jellies, cheese, and other toppings.

Dorie’s Cookies is a great pick for those looking to add some variety to their cookie baking. Brownies, bars, rolled dough, drop dough, sandwich cookies- Dorie includes a little bit of everything. I particularly enjoyed the addition of international cookies. There are also a few savory options. The instructions are well-written and easy to follow.

Most of the ingredients are readily available in the average American grocery store. A few items may be more difficult to find including brown rice syrup, miso paste, shichimi togarashi, rose extract, golden syrup, semolina flour, and orange flower water.

A handful of the recipes also require specialty tools- Bruno’s New Year’s Waffles and Three-Way Sugar-Cone Pizzelles use a pizzelle maker, Devil’s Food Wafflets with Chocolate Sauce needs a waffle or pizzelle maker, and Madeleines use a special pan.

Coffee-Cardamom Cookies Recipe

Excerpt from Dorie’s Cookies

Print Pin

Coffee-Cardamom Cookies

A recipe for Coffee-Cardamom Cookies from the cookbook, Dorie's Cookies. These spiced cut-out cookies have ground coffee mixed right into the dough.

Course Dessert

Cuisine N/A

Keyword cardamom, coffee, cookie, dessert

Prep Time 20 minutes minutes

Cook Time 11 minutes minutes

Resting Time: 2 hours hours

Total Time 2 hours hours 31 minutes minutes

Servings 30 Cookies

Ingredients

For the cookies:

• 2 cups (272 grams) all-purpose flour
• 1 tablespoon ground espresso or coffee beans or 2 teaspoons instant espresso
• 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cardamom
• 1/2 teaspoon fine sea salt
• 1 stick (8 tablespoons, 4 ounces, 113 grams) unsalted butter cut into chunks, at room temperature
• 1/2 cup (100 grams) packed light brown sugar
• 1/4 cup (50 grams) sugar
• 1 large egg at room temperature
• 1 1/2 tablespoons unsulfured molasses
• 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

For the optional glaze:

• 1 large egg white
• 3/4 cup (90 grams) confectioners’ sugar
• 1 1/2 teaspoons unsalted butter melted
• 1/2 to 1 teaspoon warm water if needed

Instructions

To make the cookies:

• Whisk the flour, espresso, cinnamon, cardamom and salt together.
• Working with a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, or in a large bowl with a hand mixer, beat the butter and both sugars together on medium speed until smooth, about 3 minutes. Add the egg and beat until well incorporated, about 2 minutes.
• Beat in the molasses and vanilla, don’t be concerned if the mixture curdles. Stop the mixer, scrape down the bowl and add the flour mixture all at once. Pulse until the risk of flying flour has passed, then mix on low speed just until the dry ingredients are fully blended into the dough. You’ll have a thick, very moist dough.
• Turn the dough out, gather it together and shape it into a disk.
• Roll the dough between sheets of parchment paper to a thickness of 1/4 inch. Slide the parchment-sandwiched dough onto a baking sheet and freeze for at least 1 hour, or refrigerate for at least 2 hours.

When you're ready to bake:

• Center a rack in the oven and preheat it to 350˚F (180˚C). Line two baking sheets with parchment paper or a silicone baking mat. Have a 2-inch-diameter cookie cutter at hand.
• Peel away both sheets of parchment paper and put the dough back on one sheet. Cut out as many cookies as you can and place them on the sheets. Gather the scraps together, re-roll, chill and cut.
• Bake the cookies one sheet at a time for 11 to 13 minutes, rotating the sheet after 6 minutes, or until they are toasty brown on both the bottoms and tops, always using a cool baking sheet. Poke them gently — they should be firm around the edges and softer in the center. Transfer the baking sheet to a rack and allow the cookies to cool for at least 20 minutes, or until they reach room temperature, before glazing (or serving) them.

To make the optional glaze and finish the cookies:

• Working in a medium bowl, whisk the egg white until it’s foamy. Pour in the confectioners’ sugar and, continuing with the whisk or switching to a flexible spatula, stir, mash and mix until the sugar is thoroughly moistened. It looks like an impossible job, but a little elbow grease will get it done. You’ll have a thick mass. Push the mixture down and stir in the melted butter. If the glaze looks too thick to brush, stir in a bit of water a little at time until you get a workable consistency; you’ll probably need less than 2 teaspoons of water, so go slow.
• You can spread the glaze over the cookies with a small icing spatula or a butter knife, but I prefer to use a brush. Dip a pastry brush into the glaze, picking up 1/4 to 1/2 teaspoon of glaze, and brush it over one cookie, brushing in one direction. Without taking any more glaze, working perpendicular to the original direction, brush the glaze until you have a nice crosshatch pattern.
• Repeat with the remaining cookies. You can serve the cookies 15 minutes after they’re glazed, but if you want to save them for later, place them on a lined baking sheet and allow them to air-dry for at least 1 hour before storing.