First off, how’s your weekend?
Mine was relaxing as usual, mostly catching up on blog reading, watching beauty channels on Youtube and TV shows. That said, I was planning to bake something over the weekend so that I’ve something to blog about on Monday (my blog is in serious need of breaking the curries-and-stir-fry pattern). Plus, the weather was fine – meaning good lighting for photo-taking.
Unfortunately, the plan has gone down the drain as I end up watching the entire season of Modern Family. Oops. When it comes to TV shows, it’s like an once-you-pop-you- can’t- stop moment for me. 🙂
Better late than never, I have decided to partake in a light baking after work on Monday. Not wanting to spend more than an hour fiddling around in the kitchen, I’ve found this easy recipe on mocha vanilla twists which has a mix of my favourite flavours – vanilla, chocolate and coffee. If you have been following my blog, you might have the feeling of deja vu – chocolate pinwheels which I’ve made a while back.
At first glance, the recipe seems feasible as the ingredients were readily available in my pantry and the listed prep & cook time is 45 minutes. Perfect.
Having said that, the whole baking is not a bed of roses as I find twisting the dough is the hardest part of the whole process. Maybe because I didn’t spend enough time playing with Play-Doh as a child! For the first batch, I didn’t twist it enough and it ended up looking like this. When the second time around, I’ve tried to “sausage” roll the mocha and vanilla portion as small in diameter possible (longer) in order to create a tighter twist (hope this makes sense). Anyway, it doesn’t really matter, the twisting is mostly for aesthetic purpose.
Most importantly these taste really good. The instructions mention about storing the twists in an airtight container for up to a week which won’t be an issue right? 😉
Mocha Vanilla Twists
(adapted from The Australian Women’s Weekly – Macaroons & Biscuits)
Makes about 28 ( I ended up with 14 due to the thickness.)
Ingredients:
- 125g (4 ounces) butter, softened
- 1/2 cup (110g) caster sugar
- 1 egg
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 1 2/3 cups (250g) plain flour
- 2 tsps instant coffee granules
- 2 tsps boiling water
- 2 tbsps cocoa powder
Method:
1. Preheat oven to 180 degrees celsius (350 degrees fahrenheit). Line oven trays with baking paper.
2. In a small cup, stir to combine coffee granules and boiling water. Set aside.
3. Beat butter, sugar, egg and extract in small bowl with electric mixer until combined; stir in sifted flour in two batches.
3. Divide dough in half. Stir in coffee mixture and sifted cocoa into one portion to make mocha dough.
4. Divide both dough portions into four equal pieces. Roll each portion into a 40cm (16 inch) sausage. Twist one plain sausage and one mocha sausage together; cut into seven 5cm (2 inch) lengths. Repeat with remaining plain and mocha dough.
5. Place twists about 2.5 cm (1 inch) apart on trays; bake about 15 minutes. Cool on trays.
beautiful cookies…a work of art!
Thanks for your comment Jill!
What a great cookie. I love mocha flavored anything.
Welcome to the mocha choca club, hehe! Just being silly here. Thanks for visiting my site. 🙂
Very yummy looking twists!
Thanks and it is quite fun to make too! 🙂
Those cookies look delicious!
P.S. I LOVE Modern Family–just recently discovered it.
Thanks for your comment, Kath.
Re: Modern Family – I have just discovered it too. Since many of my favourite shows have either being cancelled (i.e. ugly betty, pushing daisies, heroes) or halted in summer, I’m scraping for new shows at the moment. 😛
These look like great little bites to have around the house when friends or family come over to visit!
And you are not alone, I know what you mean that sometimes when you start watching a series you just. cant. stop. !!! 😛 haha
Risking to sound like a sales lady – these twists make an eye-catching snacks; they are not only looking good, I think they taste wonderful 😛
And, I’m so glad that I’m not alone in this 😉
Wow these look good now if only I was a baker…
Ok, they look like complicated cookies, but they aren’t! I’m not the worst baker but I’m not a really skilled one either – so if I can achieve this, so can you! 🙂
Thanks for dropping by my site.
So pretty! Nice photos.
Thanks for your lovely words, Heather! 🙂
These look fabulous! I’m so jealous you got your twists to stay.. I made something like this once and they turned into blobs ha Maybe I’ll try again with this recipe!
Maybe once you cut them in several pieces, you can lightly hand roll individual pieces so they piece together better.
Don’t over-roll the each piece, otherwise it’ll end up looking like this –>(http://www.fussfreecooking.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/07/Ugly-Twists.jpg)
Anyway, hope that you’ll be second time lucky. 🙂
If you were having troubles twisting the dough, you wouldn’t know it from the photos…they look so good and perfect. Must be perfectly paired with coffee and/or tea.
I’m just glad that I did not make the twists on live tv, haha!
Thanks for dropping by! 🙂
These look like a lot of fun to make (and eat:))
Hi Sara,
Definitely, hope you’ll like the recipe. Thanks for your comment. 🙂
these look wonderful! I need to make them! Thanks for posting this:)
Mmmm they look beautifully delicious! I’m loving all of the flavours especially when they’re twisted together like that! Great blog you have here Emily 🙂 You have yourself a new follower.
Looks amazing! Congrats on Top 9!
What a great treat, they looks so pretty too. Congrats on the top 9!
Im definitely going to try this out when im done pretending im on a diet!
These are really eye-catching! They look wonderful and I love the chocolate/coffee combination on it’s own so with vanilla it must just be fabulous. For some reason these make me want to have a cup of coffee and dunk the cookies! Strange, but probably good 🙂 Love the site!
Hi5 Emily!! I love modern family as well. It’s so funny. I’m waiting for the new season start and I wish it will comes out soon. I love this mocha vanilla twist. The color looks really pretty and taste. 😉
How can i make these cokies but without the use of eggs as i i dont eat eggs
Hi Neha,
Unfortunately I haven’t tried making these cookies without eggs. That said, I did some research on Google and apparently for cookies, every egg in the recipe can be replaced by 2 tbsps of constrach (add a bit of water until it becomes a pliable dough). As in how much water to add, I think it is a bit of a judgement call….
Hope this helps. 🙂