This Hairy Bikers coffee kisses recipe rolls a rubbed-in coffee dough into small balls, then sandwiches the baked cookies in pairs with vanilla butter icing. Once paired, the Mums Know Best batch makes about 24 kisses in 70 minutes with cooling, at roughly 100 calories a kiss by my estimate.
The recipe came from the mum of Duncan Barnes, one of their series directors, and they call them “tasty nuggets of coffee cookies”. Where many coffee kisses use coffee buttercream, theirs keeps the coffee in the biscuit and fills them with plain vanilla icing.
Spacing is what to watch, because the teaspoon-sized balls spread in the oven and they say to leave room between each one. And since the dough is firm, I’d roll each ball smooth between the palms, so the pairs match up neatly for sandwiching.
Hairy Bikers Coffee Kisses Recipe
Description
Flour, butter and sugar are rubbed to crumbs, then an egg yolk and a spoonful of coffee bind them into a firm dough for rolling. Once baked and cold, half the little domes get a spread of vanilla butter cream before the rest go on top.
Ingredients
For the biscuits
For the icing
Instructions
- Make the dough: In a large bowl, mix the flour, butter and sugar until the mixture looks like breadcrumbs. Then add the egg and coffee and mix again to make a firm dough.
- Heat the oven: Preheat the oven to 190°C/Gas 5, or about 170°C fan by my conversion.
- Roll: Take teaspoons of the mixture and roll them into small balls with your hands. Then place them on a baking sheet, leaving space between each one because they will spread.
- Bake: Bake for 15 minutes, then move them to a wire rack to cool.
- Make the icing: Meanwhile, beat enough icing sugar into the soft butter to make a thick butter cream. Then add the vanilla essence.
- Sandwich: When the cookies are cold, spread half of them with butter cream and top with the rest. Then dust with icing sugar if you like.
FAQs
How many coffee kisses does it make?
They say about 24, and with plain teaspoons of dough I read that as 24 finished kisses from about 48 little balls. So each ball is only around 7g by my maths, which suits their “tasty nuggets”, though no weight is given.
Roll them bigger and you’ll get about 12 kisses at roughly 200 calories each, though they may need a little longer, which is my guess.
How strong should the coffee be?
The list asks for 1 large teaspoon of liquid coffee, or 1 teaspoon of instant dissolved in boiling water. But no amount of water is given, so I’d use just enough to dissolve it, which is my own guess to keep the dough firm. And in older British recipes, liquid coffee often means a coffee essence such as Camp, which is my reading of it.
For a stronger hit, I’d add coffee to the butter cream too, as many versions do, though their icing uses only vanilla.
Who gave them the recipe?
Duncan Barnes, one of the two directors on their Mums Know Best series, sent it from his mum along with her cheese nibbles. And their other director, François Gandolfi, gave them a fougasse with his mum’s anchoïade, which sits in the same Family favourites chapter.
From the same book, Mrs Miller’s jam-filled empire biscuits are another sandwich biscuit for the tea tray.
Can I use margarine?
Yes, the dough takes butter or margarine, though the icing is made with very soft butter. But I’d use butter for both, because I’d expect a richer biscuit, though that’s my preference rather than their rule.
And if you love coffee in baking, their Mums Still Know Best coffee and walnut cake brings that flavour to a full cake.
How long do they keep?
No keeping time is given, so my own guide is unfilled biscuits in an airtight tin, sandwiched on the day you serve them. Because the butter cream softens in a warm room, I’d keep filled ones somewhere cool and eat them within a couple of days.
And for another tray from the same book, their Mums Know Best millionaire’s shortbread sets a condensed milk caramel under chocolate. Or for a fruit cake they say keeps well in a tin, their Mums Know Best sticky date cake needs no eggs at all.
