Did you ever watch Home Alone? You know, from back when Macaulay Culkin was cute. Apparently it released in 1990 and the fact that I remember it well makes me way old. But back to the movie. Growing up in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia that movie was the first time I was exposed to Christmas. You see we are Muslim and before the whole world shrank thanks to the internet Christmas was still a very North American/ European thing. Now I see friends still living in Pakistan putting up trees with twinkling lights. It is fun to see that Santa has gone global 🙂 I love the carols, the lights, the magic of it all, but I also really love having another excuse to bake. When I spotted these Lindt Shortbread Cookies from Salma of The Write Balance I knew I had to bake them pronto. Because, well it’s the season after all. The recipe sounded wonderful as written, but I have wanted to make a Coffee Shortbread Cookies for a long time and seized this opportunity. A fat pinch of instant coffee and some skor bits later I am a little in love. These Toffee Coffee Shortbread Cookies w/ Lindt are tender with a little crunch, subtly flavored from the coffee with beautiful notes of caramel. Fun fact: I usually drink my coffee black, but when I want something indulgent a caramel macchiato hits the spot. The flavor combination here is a mellow play on that drink. With a piece of chocolate on top, because well chocolate makes everything better. Now for reasons that I am unable to decipher the chocolate in these Toffee Coffee Shortbread Cookies w/ Lindt discoloured a little after baking. They were still extremely delicious though so I would happily make these on repeat. If I ever solve the mystery of the streaky chocolate I will report back here. Also please note that there are two varieties of milk chocolate lindt bars, I used this one .Â
