How are we all doing this week? The hot weather we have welcomed this week has been both a pain and a pleasure. Pain because all I want to do is spend my time outside, out of my hot kitchen and apartment, which is of course not the right thing to do right now. Pleasure because I am lucky to have a small park next to my apartment that has remained very quiet so I have safely been able to enjoy my lunch breaks outside soaking in a little sun. I have also been very busy in the kitchen cooking up something special and I know its something you’re going to love. Why so confident? Well the original recipe these are based off are one of, if not the most, popular recipe I have ever published. Ive taken the brownie crinkle cookies, shrunk them, infused them with A LOT of coffee, and sandwiched them with a mascarpone, vanilla rich, rum laced cream. If you can’t tell, I love these so much.

The cookies are as easy to make as their bigger relatives and thankfully the filling is just as easy. All you need to do is whisk everything together until smooth. The most important thing to note is that the mascarpone is a tricky ingredient, this incredibly rich creamy Italian cheese has a tendency to want to split when whipped so it is very important that the cream and cheese are used cold straight from the fridge. This means the cream will whip up quickly before the cheese has a chance to split.

Over the last couple years since the original recipe was posted there has been a few people who’ve had issues with the recipe and whilst this has been a small handful I wanted to go over the recipe for a second to help those people succeed in the future. I have given a lot of detail in the recipe below but to double down, the timings are very important. If the chocolate and butter, once melted, are left to cool for too long the cookies can come out flat, if the chocolate mixture is too hot it can set the cookie dough too much meaning they won’t spread enough and can look dull and lacking any shine. When it comes to baking it is also very important all of the cookies are baked at the same time, otherwise as they sit at room temperature the batter will start to set and again they won’t spread and won’t have a nice shiny crust. Try and stick to the timings as closely as you can and you are sure to have the most delicious cookies going.

Tiramisu Brownie Crinkle Cookies
Makes 10 sandwich cookies

Brownie Cookies 
200g dark chocolate, 65-70% cocoa solids
125g unsalted butter, diced
20g ground coffee (ground finely for espresso)
25ml espresso (or very strong coffee)
150g caster sugar
100g light brown sugar
2 large eggs
130g plain flour
3 tbsp cocoa powder
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp fine sea salt

Mascarpone Cream Filling
100g mascarpone, cold
165g double cream
2 tsp vanilla bean paste
65g icing sugar
2 tbsp dark rum (or marsala or brandy), optional

Temperature and timing is very important with this recipe so before you start get all the ingredients for the cookies weighed out, two large baking trays lined with parchment paper and the oven preheated to 180C (160C fan) 350F.

Place the butter into a small saucepan and over medium heat cook until browned. The butter will melt and then splutter and then foam. When it foams the milk solids will have fallen to the bottom of the pan and will be a nutty brown. Immediately pour the butter into a bowl with the ground coffee. Set aside for 10 minutes before pouring in the espresso. Pour the coffee mixture through a very fine mesh sieve into a heat proof bowl. Press on the back of the coffee grounds to extract as much of the butter as you can. 

Place the bowl with the butter over a pan of simmering water. Add the chocolate the bowl and stir occasionally until fully melted. Remove the bowl from the heat and set aside for the moment. In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the whisk attachment, or using an electric hand mixer, whisk together the eggs and sugars for exactly 5 minutes, on medium/high speed. Meanwhile mix together the dry ingredients, sieving the cocoa powder if it has lots of lumps. Once the eggs have been mixing for exactly 5 minutes pour in the chocolate mixture and mix for about 30 seconds to combine. 

Add the dry ingredients to the bowl and mix very briefly just until combined. Use your spatula to give one last mix, scraping the bottom of the bowl to make sure everything is evenly combined. Use a 2 tablespoon sized ice cream scoop to form the cookies. Make sure to leave plenty of space between each cookie as they will spread. Sprinkle each cookie with a little flaked sea salt before placing into the oven and baking for 8-9 minutes. The cookies will come out of the oven with that wonderful crinkled look and slightly domed. They will collapse a little as they cool but this helps form that perfect fudgy centre. The cookies will be very soft so allow them to cool on the baking trays for at least 20-30 minutes before removing from the tray to cool completely. 

These cookies will keep for 4-5 days but will be best within the first 3 days. 

Once the cookies are fully cooled make the filling. Simply add all of the ingredients to a mixer and whisk on low speed to break up the mascarpone a little then raise to medium speed and whisk until the mixture holds soft peaks. This whisking should take no more than 30 seconds. To get the idea texture it is imperative that the cream and mascarpone are cold, straight from the fridge. It’s also important to whisk only to the right texture. If you are going to pipe the filling its best to whisk to a slightly looser consistency, just beginning to form peaks, as it will thicken when its piped. If you’re using spoons to fill the cookies you can whisk until fully soft peaks. 

Using a piping bag fitted with a plain round tip, or a spoon, to pipe a round of cream onto half of the cookies, sandwiching together with a second cookie pressing gently together until the cream filling almost comes to the edges. 

Refrigerate the cookies for an hour to firm up the filling a little. If not serving immediately the cookies should be kept in a sealed container in the fridge and allow to come to room temperature for a few minutes before serving.