These cookies bring together everything you could ever want for Easter, and two incredible flavour collaborations, our Hot Cross Coffee and Manilife's Hot Cross Bun peanut butter. The cookie is packed with peanut butter toffee, dark chocolate and aromatic Hot Cross coffee to emphasise the chocolate, gentle spiciness, raisins, and dried cherries in every bite.
Makes: 12-14 large cookies Prep time: 30 minutes (plus chilling time) Cook time: 13-16 minutes
Ingredients:
For the cookie dough:
- 150g unsalted butter, softened
- 70g white sugar
- 100g light brown sugar
- 1 egg + 1 egg yolk
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1 1/2 tsp baking powder
- 1/2 tsp bicarbonate of soda
- 8g cornstarch
- 240g plain flour
- 4 tsp Volcano's Hot Cross coffee (ground for espresso)
- 1/2 tsp each: ground cinnamon, cardamom, nutmeg
- 100g dark chocolate, chopped
- 50g golden raisins
- 50g dried cherries, halved
- Flaky sea salt for topping
For the peanut butter toffee:
- 113g unsalted butter
- 200g granulated sugar
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 70g Manilife Hot Cross Bun Peanut Butter
- 2 tsp Volcano's Hot Cross Coffee (ground for espresso)
Method:
1. Make the peanut butter toffee:
Melt butter in a saucepan over medium heat. Add sugar, salt, peanut butter, and coffee.
Whisk gently until bubbling.
Cook for 8-12 minutes, stirring occasionally, until the mixture turns deep golden brown and becomes smooth and silky.
Pour onto a lined tray and let cool completely until hard and brittle. Break into small pieces.
2. Make the cookie dough:
Chop the dark chocolate and halve your dried cherries.
Beat softened butter and both sugars together with a wooden spoon until smooth. Add all the spices, coffee, and salt and mix again.
Add the egg, mix, then add the yolk and vanilla. Mix until glossy and emulsified.
In a separate bowl, whisk together flour, cornstarch, baking powder, and bicarbonate of soda. Fold dry ingredients into wet mixture until halfway combined.
Add chopped chocolate, raisins, cherries, and broken toffee pieces. Fold until just combined.
3. Chill:
Cover and refrigerate for at least 2 hours (or up to 3 days). Chilling firms up the butter so the cookies hold their shape better and allows the flavours to develop and deepen. The longer you chill the dough, the better the texture and flavour of the cookies.
4. Bake: Preheat oven to 170°C (340°F).
Scoop a 80g cookie ball, put an extra piece of chocolate and toffee on top, and put onto lined baking trays, spacing well apart.
Bake for 13-16 minutes until golden at the edges but soft in the centre.
After 8 minutes, take the tray out of the oven, lift the tray about 10cm and tap it against the table or wooden cutting board a couple of times to create ripples on the surface. Repeat at 11 minutes.
Once baked, whilst still warm on the tray, you can use a spatula to gently push in any uneven edges and tidy up the shape into neat rounds. Cool on the tray for 10 minutes.
Then eat immediately!
Storage: Keep in an airtight container for 3-4 days
Recipe from @bittenbitess
