A very long time ago I had the fortunate ability to take a trip to Maui, Hawaii. Most of my travel tends to be in the off season of wherever I’m going. This allows me to get some great deals. This time I was able to stay in a Ritz Carlton for half price. It was an amazing place to stay. There were issues getting there but overall the trip was great. On the property of the Ritz Carlton was a small grocery type store. They served some food as well as coffee. One drink stood out. They did a brown sugar latte. As far as I can tell it’s the only place that does it that I’ve been able to find. I’ve been chasing that drink ever since then. I decided to see what I can do to capture that flavor in a cookie. This is two separate attempts (actually 3 as the first didn’t work well), but these two were great in their own right.

This trip was my first real adult vacation that I paid for. It was my first flight on a wide body jet. It was a 767 so that was also exciting. I learned to surf on this trip. I also really realized just how small we really are in life when I was standing on the volcanic side of Maui staring into the vast expanse of the Pacific Ocean realizing there was nothing else out there for thousands of miles. I truly felt alive at that point. It’s one of the first times I can remember feeling that way.

Here were are now in completely different times. We’re still in lock down. I think it’s either week 8 or 9. I’ve lost count. In the past month or more I decided to buy an espresso machine and experiment with that. It’s been pretty awesome. I’ve learned a lot about how to properly pull shots. I’ve learned what type of grind you should use. Different beans and roasts give different types of flavor and aroma too. It’s given me more of an appreciation for the baristas out there that daily pull shots. I know more about the pieces and parts of a semi automatic machine. My home lattes have been amazing. No sugar or additional flavors needed any more. The freshness of the ground beans and espresso have increased the flavor in my baking. It’s been awesome to be able to do this.

Above you’ll see the steps to pull a double shot of espresso. I have a post on my Instagram that walks you through the entire steps of this. Once you do it a few times it’s really easy. Basic steps are to weigh out the beans, grind them, weigh them again when you add them to the portafilter, tamp them down, trim the portafilter, and then run the machine. I like to pull my shots first before I do anything else when baking. This gives the espresso some time to cool off so that you don’t run any risks to the mix with really hot espresso.

I mentioned earlier that I’ve now made this three times. What you’ll see below is the second and third attempts. I can’t remember what went wrong with the first round. I know it was definitely too moist with all of the espresso I added. I created the two here in separate half batches. I wasn’t expecting the first one to spread as much as it did. They look burnt but since they’re all brown sugar and a bit light on flour they’re some of the most chewy cookies I’ve ever made. This is even days later after storing in a plastic bag. My second batch was to give those people that like a more cakey cookie the option. For these I dropped the oven temp too. I switched the leavening agent after doing some research. I think, I don’t know, I think, that the baking powder holds up better to the acidity of the espresso. Either way the flour does give the leavening what it needs to really build a crumb and texture. Both cookies are very chewy. The ones with more flour have more body. It’s really just a preference thing. I can’t stop eating them both so I’m glad I made both. There’s enough espresso to wake you up a bit with just one or two of these cookies.

If you want to share your thoughts or need some help with espresso just reach out. You can email or hit me on Instagram.

Stay safe out there.

Ingredients

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