By Dorie Greenspan
- Total Time
- 45 minutes, plus chilling and cooling
- Rating
- 4(108)
- Notes
- Read community notes
The only thing better than a plate of cookies is one big cookie meant to be shared by everyone around the table. It’s the kind of dessert that will encourage your friends and family to linger at the table and to keep the conversation going. It’s a brown-sugar cookie redolent of ginger, honey, cinnamon and clove that carries the scent of the season and tacks between crisp and slightly chewy, between gingersnap and gingerbread. That it has ground coffee in it marks it as a sweet for grown-ups. It’s a roll-out cookie, but not a fussy one – any shape works and ragged is better than perfect. I usually sprinkle the cookie with sanding sugar, but you can drizzle it with melted chocolate or frost it, if you’d like. For extra fun, put out chocolate or caramel sauce (or both) and invite everyone to dip.
Featured in: A Big, Shared Cookie Is an Invitation to Stay and Talk Into the Night
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Ingredients
Yield:About 8 servings
- 1¼cups (170 grams) all-purpose flour
- ½cup (68 grams) whole-wheat flour
- 1½teaspoons ground coffee
- 1teaspoon ground cinnamon
- 1teaspoon ground ginger
- ¾teaspoon ground cloves
- 1stick plus 1 tablespoon (4½ ounces; 128 grams) cold, unsalted butter, cut into small pieces
- ½cup packed (100 grams) brown sugar
- ¼cup (50 grams) sugar
- ¼teaspoon fine sea salt
- 1large egg
- 1tablespoon honey
- Sanding sugar, for sprinkling (optional)
- Chocolate or caramel sauce, homemade or store-bought, for dipping (optional)
Ingredient Substitution Guide
Nutritional analysis per serving (8 servings)
293 calories; 13 grams fat; 8 grams saturated fat; 0 grams trans fat; 4 grams monounsaturated fat; 1 gram polyunsaturated fat; 41 grams carbohydrates; 2 grams dietary fiber; 18 grams sugars; 4 grams protein; 87 milligrams sodium
Note: The information shown is Edamam’s estimate based on available ingredients and preparation. It should not be considered a substitute for a professional nutritionist’s advice.
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Preparation
Step
1
Whisk together the flours, coffee and spices; set aside.
Step
2
Working with a mixer fitted with a paddle attachment (or a hand mixer), mix the pieces of cold butter, both sugars and the salt on low speed for about 3 minutes, until the mixture forms clumps and then comes together. You’ll see pieces of butter here and there — you’re supposed to. Add the dry ingredients all at once, and then pulse the mixer on and off, just until the risk of flying flour has passed. Mix on low-medium speed until you’ve got a bowl of crumbs, about 3 minutes. Lightly whisk the egg and honey together. With the mixer on low, add the egg mixture gradually, and then continue to mix until the dough forms clumps. Squeeze a bit of the dough, and it will hold together. Reach into the bowl, and press the dough into a ball. Turn it out onto a sheet of parchment paper.
Step
3
Press the dough down, cover it with another sheet of paper and roll it out until it’s about ⅛-inch thick. It can be any shape — round, oval, rectangular, raggedy-edged or pristine. It will probably be about 12-by-15 inches, but the thickness is more important than the dimensions. Being neat doesn’t buy you anything with this cookie. Slide the sandwiched dough onto a baking sheet, and refrigerate it for at least 1 hour (or up to 3 days). If you prefer, you can wrap the dough well and freeze it for up to 2 months; keep it at room temperature for about 20 minutes before baking.
Step
4
When you’re ready to bake, center a rack in the oven, and heat it to 350. Remove the top sheet of paper; leave the dough on the paper-lined baking sheet. If you’re using the sanding sugar, sprinkle the dough with about 2 tablespoons’ worth.
Step
5
Bake the cookie for 20 to 24 minutes — the edges will be darker than the middle. Press the center of the cookie, and it should be firm with just a tiny bit of give; it will feel firmer as you work your way out. Transfer the baking sheet to a rack, and allow the cookie to come to room temperature. If you’re not eating it immediately, you can wrap the cookie well, and keep it at room temperature for about 4 days. Make sure the room is dry — humidity is a crisp cookie’s nemesis.
Step
6
You can serve the cookie whole, letting everyone break off pieces (of course, there will be crumbs — they’re part of the cookie’s charm), or you can break or cut it in the kitchen and serve the pieces as you would any cookie. Chocolate or caramel sauce (or both) for dipping is optional, but scrumptious.
Ratings
4
out of 5
108
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Cooking Notes
lupi
I am puzzled by how often recipe instructions call for something to be put in the freezer or refrigerator on a baking sheet. Am I the only one without a mostly empty professional size refrigerator/freezer? How about an alternative suggestion? Anyone?
candaceb108
When I saw the recipe in the NYT Magazine, I was intrigued. I love crisp cookies, well, also chewy cookies, well, cookies. So I made the cookie today. I gotta say, this is the biggest bunch a nuthin I have ever baked. The coffee and the spices just sit across from each other staring, they do not merge, nor really express themselves. It tastes like a cookie you'd find at the bottom of your kid's beach bag in September, complete with sand. Totally not worth the ingredients or calories.
Janine Gross
What is sanding sugar and is there a substitute that non-professional home bakers are more likely to have on hand?
Nicholas L.
You are not, and I completely agree with you. They often lose sight of the fact that they are writing these recipes for home cooks with home kitchen, even apartment kitchens, which are often considerable smaller. Well intentioned with their details, but thoughtless at the same time.
Shalby
If you live in Iowa like I do, set it outside. My refrigerator expands to the garage and backyard deck in winter!
Jackie
Try using turbinado sugar. It works great with my ginger biscotti.
JC
A search for “sanding sugar” says it’s a larger sugar crystal. Also called “pearl sugar”. The decorating sugar in the baking aisle. If you want to use regular, it should work. Won’t be as crunchy.
jet
Winter is Wisconsin is a big old walk-in fridge/freezer. I just put what I need to chill on the gas grill and close the lid. Admittedly not much help for apartment dwellers or folks in Florida...
Andrea
Do the coffee grounds "cook" in the cookie? It seems as though ground coffee would add a grittiness to the dough.
Susan Jacobsen
Make it in the winter and place outside or in garage. It’s a bog cookie and most of us don’t have room in the fridge for a big cookie sheet.Also, my cookie started to burn around the edges so keep an eye on it. I found just shy of 20 minutes is good.
Che
I was wondering about the Coffee Grounds as well. Is that dry, ground up coffee, or Instant coffee? Unclear. To any respondents, Thanks in advance!
Sara Aase
I too was afraid of coffee grit, so I substituted espresso powder for the ground coffee and it came out deliciously. This was the plainest but my favorite holiday cookie this year!
Tobi
I love this cookie, in fact I just made it last night to serve alongside a honey semifredo. Unfortunately...... I forgot to bring it to the table! I love having guests linger at the table breaking off pieces, nibbling and chatting. Maybe sipping a little rum. I do always amp the spices...alot! This time I did not add the coffee but usually use a fine grind. I just use regular sugar .
Sara Aase
I too was afraid of coffee grit, so I substituted espresso powder for the ground coffee and it came out deliciously. This was the plainest but my favorite holiday cookie this year!
Che
I was wondering about the Coffee Grounds as well. Is that dry, ground up coffee, or Instant coffee? Unclear. To any respondents, Thanks in advance!
michelle
I love this cookie! It’s really crisp and the spices are there without being too overpowering. I served it with the mango kulfi and the cookie became a dipping device to scoop up the ice cream.The best thing about this giant nummy is how it kept my friends sitting around the dinner table talking well into the night while breaking off pieces of the cookie to make a point. Or ponder on what had just been said. It’s one of those “I’ll just take another little piece” kind of dessert until gone.
Susan Jacobsen
Make it in the winter and place outside or in garage. It’s a bog cookie and most of us don’t have room in the fridge for a big cookie sheet.Also, my cookie started to burn around the edges so keep an eye on it. I found just shy of 20 minutes is good.
dfreinkel
I use Turbinado sugar. Enjoyed this recipe, as most The Wisconsin solution is great but you have to go out there from a warm kitchen with baking. I'm going to consider keeping my pastry marble slab in the refrigerator until i need it to chill the dough.
Lorie
This is a great cookie! Dividing the dough into two portions makes it more manageable, and I found that refrigerating was not absolutely necessary. This will become one of my go-to recipes. Thank you, Dorie!
Ellen Nichols
Question: Is there any reason I can't use this dough to roll out and cut shapes before baking? I would love to use this to make my football shaped cookies as it is the right color. It sounds really delicious, and the coffee is sitting right behind me. Then I can add to the serving tray with regular sugar cookies in the pennant shapes.
Andrea
Do the coffee grounds "cook" in the cookie? It seems as though ground coffee would add a grittiness to the dough.
Sue
when do you remove the parchment...before or after baking...cooling?
candaceb108
When I saw the recipe in the NYT Magazine, I was intrigued. I love crisp cookies, well, also chewy cookies, well, cookies. So I made the cookie today. I gotta say, this is the biggest bunch a nuthin I have ever baked. The coffee and the spices just sit across from each other staring, they do not merge, nor really express themselves. It tastes like a cookie you'd find at the bottom of your kid's beach bag in September, complete with sand. Totally not worth the ingredients or calories.
Jeangros
In Michigan, the porch or deck cooler works beautifully. Just set it outside on a TV tray, to cool. Check occasionally for raccoon bandits. This winter the outside cooler is malfunctioning...unseasonably warm weather; not even any snow.
Stephanie
Anyone try to substitute for or omit the egg??
Janet
I hate cloves. Any suggestions for a substitution?
Marc
Allspice.
elle
omit them. it'll never be missed.
lupi
I am puzzled by how often recipe instructions call for something to be put in the freezer or refrigerator on a baking sheet. Am I the only one without a mostly empty professional size refrigerator/freezer? How about an alternative suggestion? Anyone?
jet
Winter is Wisconsin is a big old walk-in fridge/freezer. I just put what I need to chill on the gas grill and close the lid. Admittedly not much help for apartment dwellers or folks in Florida...
Nicholas L.
You are not, and I completely agree with you. They often lose sight of the fact that they are writing these recipes for home cooks with home kitchen, even apartment kitchens, which are often considerable smaller. Well intentioned with their details, but thoughtless at the same time.
Shalby
If you live in Iowa like I do, set it outside. My refrigerator expands to the garage and backyard deck in winter!
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