Gingerbread Espresso Bars with Coffee Glaze

☕🥐🐈🔍

From Piper's Recipe Box

Gingerbread Espresso Bars

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The ones the customers rioted over

Prep

20 min

Bake

22–25 min

Makes

16 bars

In the Christmas book there's a throwaway line about customers having “basically declared open rebellion” over these when they came off the menu. That was a joke I made up. Then I actually baked them, and now I understand the rebellion.

You'll Need

• 1½ cups flour · 1 tsp baking soda · ½ tsp salt
• 2 tsp ground ginger · 1½ tsp cinnamon · ½ tsp cloves · ¼ tsp nutmeg
• 1 stick butter, melted · ¾ cup dark brown sugar
• ⅓ cup molasses — blackstrap if you want it to fight back
• 1 egg · 1 tbsp instant espresso powder dissolved in 1 tbsp hot water
• Glaze: 1 cup powdered sugar, 1 tbsp strong coffee, splash of cream

What To Do

1. Whisk the dry things and all four spices together. It should smell like December in a bowl.
2. Stir the melted butter into the brown sugar, then the molasses, egg, and the dissolved espresso. Do this in a bowl big enough that you are not fighting it.
3. Fold the dry into the wet until barely combined and press into a lined 9x9 pan — the dough is stiff, so wet your fingers.
4. 22–25 minutes at 350°F. The center should still look slightly underdone. Cool completely, then glaze and cut into squares.

Espresso powder is not the same as instant coffee and you will taste the difference. It is the ingredient doing the actual work here.

Read the book

These are the ones Books and Brew took off the menu, briefly, to general outrage.

Cocoa, Carols, and Conspiracy →

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