Coffee Cake cookies are bakery-style cookies with perfect combination of a soft brown sugar cookie and buttery crumb topping! Let’s all eat cookies for breakfast!
Make sure to try my recipe for the best Coffee Cake ever! It’s perfection!
Table of Contents
- Coffee Cake Cookies
- What Are Coffee Cake Cookies?
- What Do They Taste Like?
- But Why Isn’t Coffee In The Ingredients?
- Ingredients To Note:
- Shortening vs Butter In This Recipe:
- Tips:
- How To Make Coffee Cake Cookies/Instructions:
- Could You Drizzle These With Icing Instead?
- Storing or Freezing Coffee Cake Cookies:
- Variations:
- More Coffee Cake Recipes:
- Get the Recipe
Of course we all love coffee cake. It’s not the most exciting breakfast option, but it’s a classic for a reason. So when I came up with the idea for these cookies so many years ago I knew I was onto something! This recipe has been inspiration for so many across the internet AND on one of my favorite cozy shows, Gilmore Girls. Who knew when I dreamt up this cookie they would become so popular?!
And since these cookies are so loved I decided to make a Pumpkin Coffee Cake Cookies too, perfect for autumn!
Oh you’re in for a real treat, these Coffee Cake Cookies are the perfect combination of a soft brown sugar cookie topped with loads of buttery crumb/streusel topping topping and a moist coffee cake.
- The cookies are easy to make, and the recipe makes 20 large cookies, so this is a great option for hosting a brunch or Easter.
- There is no chill time required for the dough.
- These are great to freeze after they are baked. Simply thaw them out at room temperature.
- Dust these with powdered sugar for a very pretty presentation. You could even make a quick powdered sugar icing and drizzle that on top!
What Do They Taste Like?
These are a vanilla brown sugar cookie, with a soft texture. The sweetness and buttery crunch added by the crumb topping is absolutely perfect and they’re so good served with coffee in the morning, or anytime of day for a sweet treat!
But Why Isn’t Coffee In The Ingredients?
I get comments on this all the time in any coffee cake recipe I make, “why isn’t the coffee in the ingredients?” The thing is, in America Coffee Cake is meant to be enjoyed WITH coffee…there isn’t coffee IN the cake. Make sense? The flavor is usually butter, vanilla, and cinnamon-y…which is the perfect accompaniment to coffee.
Ingredients To Note:
- I use Salted Butter for both the cookies and the crumb topping. Note this is a personal preference, and yes you can use unsalted butter if you prefer.
- Sugars: This cookie recipe calls for a combo of light brown sugar and granulated sugar.
- Vegetable Shortening. But you can swap this out for butter if you would like. I talk more about this below.
- Use large eggs in baking unless otherwise noted. You would be surprised how much an extra large egg can change the outcome!
- Powdered Sugar to dust on top. You can also make an icing by mixing powdered sugar with a splash of milk to drizzle on the cookies.
Shortening vs Butter In This Recipe:
I use a small amount of vegetable shortening in this recipe along with the butter. Like I stated above you can use all butter as well if that’s your preference. The reason the recipe uses some shortening is it prevents the cookies from spreading quite as much due to its lack of moisture. The cookies need to be thicker to hold up all the crumb topping you are going to put on top! If you do use all butter the cookies will spread a bit more, but they will still be delicious. TIP: if you choose to use all butter, you can chill the dough to help keep them thicker!
Tips:
- I always line my baking sheet with either parchment or a silicone mat…I like the way the cookies bake up when using a lined cookies sheet, and I also appreciate the clean up!
- Please note I used a large scoop of cookie dough. A three tablespoon sized scoop works great. I bought this 3 tablespoon scoop and I love if for nice big cookies.
- The amount of crumb topping is up to you. The recipe makes a lot of crumb because I think it’s the best part of a coffee cake. I recommend adding at LEAST one tablespoon to each cookie, but add more if you’re like me!!
Make the Crumb Topping: Mix all the crumb ingredients together in a medium bowl and cut together with a pastry cutter or a fork until it’s evenly mixed. Set it aside while you make the cookie dough.
Cookies: Mix together the butter, shortening and both sugars for 1-2 minutes on medium speed in the bowl of your stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment until combined and smooth.Then add in the cinnamon, eggs and vanilla and continue mixing until evenly combined.
Next add in your dry ingredients: baking powder, salt and flour and mix until dough comes together evenly.
Assemble the Cookies: Using a large cookie scoop, portion the dough out onto the prepared baking sheet, making sure to leave enough space for them to spread. If you don’t have a cookie scoop just form the dough into cookie dough balls!
Make an indentation in the center of the cookie dough using the back of a spoon and press as much crumb topping on top as you can get. There is plenty of crumble, so pack it on!
Bake: Bake the cookies at 350°F for 9-10 minutes on a parchment lined baking sheet until edges start to get golden and then let them cool on the baking sheet for 3 minutes before transferring to a wire rack to finish cooling. And then dust with powdered sugar if desired.
Could You Drizzle These With Icing Instead?
Yes absolutely! If you want to take it another step further, take the powdered sugar you were going to use to dust the cookies and add a teaspoon or two of milk. Whisk it together and drizzle it on top! You could double or even triple that amount if you are an icing lover!
These cookies are great stored airtight at room temperature for up to 3 days. Alternately you can freeze the baked cookies in an airtight container for up to 30 days (for best freshness) and thaw out at room temperature. You will need to dust them with a little more powdered sugar after they’re thawed, but otherwise they’ll still be delicious!
Variations:
- Add nuts into the crumb topping. Chopped pecans or chopped walnuts would be great.
- Like I said above, instead of dusting these with powdered sugar make a quick icing from powdered sugar, milk, and a splash of vanilla to make a vanilla glaze icing and drizzle it on top.
- Add in pumpkin spice instead of cinnamon to make these great for fall.
More Coffee Cake Recipes:
Print
- Prep Time: 15 minutes
- Cook Time: 10 minutes
- Total Time: 25 minutes
- Yield: 20 large cookies 1x
- Category: Cookies
- Method: Oven
- Cuisine: Breakfast
Description
Coffee Cake cookies are the perfect combination of cakey cookie and buttery crumb topping! Let’s all eat cookies for breakfast!
Ingredients
Crumb Topping
- 3/4 cup butter, room temperature (*see note)
- 1/3 cup light brown sugar
- 1/3 cup granulated sugar
- 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
- 1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
Cookies
- 10 tablespoons butter, room temperature (*see note)
- 1/3 cup vegetable shortening (*see note)
- 1 cup light brown sugar
- 1/2 cup granulated sugar
- 1 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
- 2 large eggs
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- 2 teaspoons baking powder
- 1 teaspoon kosher salt
- 3 1/3 cups all purpose flour
- 1/2 cup powdered sugar for dusting
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350°F. Line a cookie sheet with parchment paper. Set aside.
- Crumb Topping: Mix all the crumb ingredients together in a medium bowl and cut together with a pastry cutter or a fork until evenly mixed. Refrigerate while making cookie dough.
- Cookies: In the bowl of your stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, mix together the butter, shortening, brown sugar, and granulated sugar for 1-2 minutes on medium speed, until combined and smooth.
- Add in the cinnamon, eggs, and vanilla and continue mixing until evenly combined. Turn the mixer to low and mix in baking powder, salt, and flour, until dough comes together evenly.
- Scoop the dough out, using a cookie scoop or spoon (about 3 Tablespoons) and place on lined cookie sheet. If using a spoon, form the dough into rounded balls. Make an indentation in the center of the cookie dough forming a well for the crumb topping.
- Spoon at least 2 tablespoons of crumb topping into the center of the dough pressing lightly to stick. (I add as much as I can get on there)
- Bake the cookies for 9-10 minutes, or until edges start to get golden and remove from oven. Allow to cool for 3 minutes on cookie sheet, then transferring to a wire rack to finish cooling.
- Dust with powdered sugar.
Notes
*I use salted butter in this recipe, but it is a personal preference. You can use unsalted if you prefer.
*I use shortening in the cookies as well as butter to give them a cakey texture. You can use all butter if you prefer. But the shortening prevents the cookies from spreading as much due to its lack of moisture vs butter. The cookies need to be thicker to hold up all the crumb topping you are going to put on top! If you do use all butter you might want to chill the dough to keep them thick!
Store airtight at room temperature for up to 3 days, or freeze airtight for up to 30 days for best freshness. Thaw at room temperature before serving.
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Where does the “coffee” come into it.? Coffee is not mentioned in the ingredients.
There is no coffee in these cookies. Coffee Cake doesn’t have coffee as an ingredient in the US, it’s just meant ot be enjoyed with a cup of coffee 🙂
Just wondering if anyone has tried freezing these cookies?
I made these cookies this week and WOW!!! They turned out excellent. Just the right amount of chewy texture and the flavor reminds me of the best Pop Tart of all…Brown Sugar Cinnamon. I could do some serious damage sitting down and eating these. I followed the cookie part of the recipe with the only modification of adding in 1tsp of cornstarch, which I find helps cookies maintain density. For the cookie, I used cold cubed butter and mixed it with the shortening and sugars for 4 minutes before adding eggs. I also chilled the dough for one hour prior to scooping. I then measured out 50g of dough for each cookie, rolled it into a ball and then flattened with the back of a spoon. For the crumb topping, I made a few modifications as I’m a huge fan of New Jersey Crumb Cake, so I wanted to achieve that denser type of topping. I melted 1 stick of butter, and then whisked in 2.5 ounces of sugar, 2.5 ounces brown sugar, 3/4 tsp cinnamon, 1/2 tsp salt. I then mixed in 2 cups flour (YES, 2 cups of flour) using a wooden spoon until the mixture formed a thick cohesive dough. I let it sit for 10 minutes and then grab bunches of it and pile it on the cookie dough. You can make some bigger chunks and smaller crumbs as the topping dough is pliable. I did go through all the topping as you pile it high on each cookie. I then put in oven to bake. As others have said, I found 10 minutes to be insufficient, and I wound up baking for 17 minutes. Everyone LOVED these and I plan to make this a regular bake item.
Made these cookies and they turned out great! I used butter flavored crisco instead of just regular shortening and I am glad I did this. I will add less flower to the crumb mix last time as well. I also did not put cinnamon in the actual cookie because I don’t like a ton of cinnamon flavor. I will definitely make these again! Thanks for sharing.
The recipe has way too much flour but otherwise nice. I think everyone has so much crumb topping left is because there is way too much flour for the butter, I added more butter to mine and it was much better. The cookie batter also has too much flour and came out dry. I’d start with 2 cups of flour instead of 3 1/3 and go from there. Thanks for a cool concept!!
I don’t generally keep shortening in my kitchen, would I be able to substitute butter? Or do you have any substitute suggestions?
Yes, you can sub in butter. It will make them slightly more dense, but still delicious!
I made these cookies 3 times already. They are the bomb! Everyone loves them.
Love hearing that!! We love them too!
These are amazing! Just finished baking them and I’m going to use them in my cookie swap! Soooooo good. Super easy.
Delicious! Tried these today for a future brunch I’m having. Agree with previous comments about the amount of crumb mixture, would probably reduce the amount made. Also, could have been my oven, but had to bake them for 15 minutes. Couldn’t be easier to make. Definitely adding these cookies to my brunch menu, I know they will be a big hit. Thanks for sharing/posting the recipe.
These cookies sound amazing! How would I store them as I would like to make them as part of my holiday baking.
Airtight at room temperature! You can stack them in a sealed container or carefully in a ziptop bag!