The Big Wide World of Food Blogging

So I was just reading one of the blogs I follow...heartbreak pie...which lead me to this "blogger event thingee" called We Should Cocoa (which was created by Chocolate Log Blog and Chocolate Teapot)...which in turn lead me to the excitement of the fact that I could contribute to something food blogger-ish.
Cool story ay?

So each month food bloggers can submit a chocolate recipe (via their own blog...hence this post) which must use the special ingredient in it (which is specified by a food blogger somewhere out there). This month (June), that special ingredient is coffee.

So here I am...submitting a chocolate recipe using coffee in the month of June.

This recipe came from when I was living in America as an Au Pair. 'My youngest' found this recipe and, due to his great obsession with these cookies (he dressed up as one for Halloween), we made them immediately. Enjoy.

Oreos

Ingredients

1 cup + 2 Tbsp sugar                       

170g butter                                        

1 tsp salt                                             

1 tsp espresso powder

1 egg                                                    

1 Tbsp water                                        

1 tsp vanilla essence                       

1½ cups flour                           

¾ cup cocoa                                    

3 Tbsp sugar                                     

3 Tbsp cocoa                                                                        

Directions

1. Beat together sugar, butter, salt and espresso powder.

2. Beat in egg, water and vanilla, then flour and cocoa.

3. Roll dough (it will be very stiff) into even sized balls.

4. Combine the extra sugar and extra cocoa together, and then roll each ball of dough in it to gently coat.

5. Place balls on a lined and greased baking sheet and flatten with a flat bottomed glass (to ⅓ cm thick).

6. Bake at 165^○C for about 18 minutes (careful not to burn). Allow to cool completely.

7. Place a teaspoon of Oreo filling (below) in the centre of one cookie and gently squeeze another cookie on top to distribute evenly.

8. Repeat for all remaining cookies.

OREO FILLING  

1⅓ tsp gelatin

2 Tbso cold water

120g  butter

1 tsp vanilla essence

2½ cups icing sugar

1. Soften gelatin in a cup with the cold water.

2. Place the cup in a larger dish with hot water and leave it there, stirring occasionally, while gelatin dissolves.

3. Meanwhile, beat together butter, vanilla and icing sugar (it will be very dry at first, but it will eventually clump together).

4. Add gelatin mixture and beat until smooth.