Gingerbread Latte Cookies – Sally’s Baking Addiction

Have your latte and eat it, too! These gingerbread latte cookies are every bit as chewy, soft, and nostalgic as my classic iced oatmeal cookies, but with a festive flavor twist. Dunk in espresso-speckled white chocolate and top with a sprinkle of spice for a creamy gingerbread latte experience… in a cookie! Pair with peppermint mocha cookies and spiced eggnog oatmeal cream pies for a trio of cookies inspired by holiday-favorite coffeehouse beverages.

If you’ve ever tried my iced gingerbread oatmeal cookies, the flavor and texture of today’s cookie recipe will seem familiar. My gingerbread oatmeal cookie recipe pairs the soft and chewy texture of regular iced oatmeal cookies with the cozy, comforting flavors of gingerbread cookies, and it is a beautiful thing! For today’s gingerbread latte cookies, we are taking this a step further, by introducing espresso flavor and sweet, creamy white chocolate.

Recipe Snapshot

• Texture: Soft and remarkably chewy
• Flavor: Gingerbread, holiday spices, coffee, oatmeal (think: Starbucks gingerbread oatmilk latte)
• Ease: They seem fancy, but this is definitely a beginner recipe
• Time: Around 1 hour, 30 minutes—only 30 minutes of chill time for this dough!

Ingredients You Need & Why

• Oats: Taking an extra few seconds to pulse the oats in a food processor will completely transform the texture of your finished cookies. No matter if you use whole oats or quick oats, pulse them a few times in your food processor to obtain the correct consistency. (See below for a visual.)
• Flour: All-purpose flour gives these cookies structure.
• Espresso Powder: I find espresso powder in the baking aisle at my regular grocery store, but you can also find it online. If you can’t find it, you can substitute instant coffee in a pinch; do not use regular ground coffee.
• Baking Soda: So the cookies will puff up a bit in the oven, then deflate a bit when cooling; someting we love about regular molasses cookies.
• Spices: It took a few rounds of testing to get the perfect ratio of spices, so they don’t overwhelm the subtle espresso flavor in these cookies. You need ginger, cinnamon, nutmeg, and cloves. These are the same spices you use when making gingerbread whoopie pies and chocolate ginger cookies.
• Salt: Flavor enhancer + sweetness balancer.
• Butter: You’ll need softened room-temperature butter.
• Sugars: Not only does it sweeten the cookies, brown sugar adds extra molasses flavor, softness, and a little moisture too. White granulated sugar is also needed to help the cookies spread.
• Egg: For binding the dough ingredients together.
• Molasses: Molasses adds deep, rich flavor. Use dark molasses that’s labeled unsulphured. Avoid blackstrap molasses in this cookie recipe because it will overpower everything else.

And white chocolate for that delicious dunk at the end!

Let’s Make Gingerbread Latte Cookies

Just like these classic iced oatmeal cookies, today’s gingerbread latte cookies are mega chewy, with buttery soft centers and slightly crisp edges. The key to their texture is pulsing the oats in a food processor or blender to gently break them down. The result is an uneven mixture of broken oats and coarse crumbs, a texture medley that gives us a compact and chewy oatmeal cookie.

Here’s what the oats look like after pulsing:

Now you can mix the oats together with the remaining dry ingredients, and work on the wet ingredients. After combining it all, the dough will be very thick and a bit sticky. It needs to chill in the refrigerator for at least 30–45 minutes before you can scoop the dough and bake it.

Success Tip: Use a Cookie Scoop

This is a textured and sticky dough. A cookie scoop not only keeps your fingers (relatively) clean, it helps ensure all cookies are the same size and shape. I recommend a medium cookie scoop, which holds 1.5 Tablespoons of cookie dough (about 35g). The cookies spread nicely, so keep each baking sheet/batch to about 8 or 9 cookies.

Finish With a Dip in White Chocolate

Chop up a couple of white chocolate bars, and melt them together with a splash of oil and a dash of espresso powder. Oil helps keep the white chocolate on the softer side, so it doesn’t get crumbly and hard.

You can melt the chocolate in the microwave, in a small bowl or a glass liquid measuring cup. Microwave in 20-second intervals, stirring after each, until the white chocolate is completely melted and smooth. Look at all those pretty little speckles of espresso! Is it that sweet? I guess so.

Dunk each cooled cookie about halfway into the espresso-flavored white chocolate, then place on a piece of parchment paper or silicone baking mat, or on a cooling rack set over a baking sheet/piece of parchment to catch the drips. Sprinkle the dipped part of the cookies with a tiny pinch of cinnamon and nutmeg, to give them that coffee shop gingerbread latte finish on top. The white chocolate eventually sets, but I recommend putting the cookies in the refrigerator to speed up the process.

Now, kick off your shoes and curl up someplace cozy, because you can enjoy this gingerbread latte-flavored treat in the comfort of your own home—no trip to the coffee shop required!

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Gingerbread Latte Cookies

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  Author: Sally
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  Prep Time: 45 minutes
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  Cook Time: 13 minutes
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  Total Time: 1 hour, 30 minutes
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  Yield: 30 cookies
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  Category: Cookies
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  Method: Baking
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  Cuisine: American

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Description

These gingerbread latte cookies are every bit as chewy, soft, and nostalgic as my classic iced oatmeal cookies, but with a festive flavor twist. Dunk in espresso-speckled white chocolate and top with a sprinkle of spice for a creamy gingerbread latte experience… in a cookie!

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Instructions

1. Make the cookies: Pulse the oats in a food processor 10–12 times until you have a variety of texture—chopped oats with some oat flour. See photo above for a visual.
2. Whisk the pulsed oats, flour, espresso powder, baking soda, salt, ginger, cinnamon, nutmeg, and cloves together in a medium bowl. Set aside.
3. In a large bowl using a hand mixer or a stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, beat the butter, brown sugar, and granulated sugar together on medium-high speed until creamed, about 2 minutes. Add the egg and molasses and beat on high speed until combined, about 1 minute. Scrape down the sides of the bowl and beat again as needed to combine.
4. Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients and mix on low speed until combined. Dough will be very thick and sticky. Cover and chill the dough for 30–45 minutes (and up to 3 days) in the refrigerator. If chilling for longer than a few hours, allow to sit at room temperature for at least 30 minutes before scooping because the dough will be quite hard.
5. Preheat oven to 350°F (177°C). Line large baking sheets with parchment paper or silicone baking mats. Set aside.
6. Scoop cookie dough, about 1.5 Tablespoons (35g) of dough per cookie, and place 3 inches apart on the baking sheets. Bake for 12–13 minutes or until lightly browned on the sides. The centers will look very soft.
7. Remove from the oven and allow cookies to cool on the baking sheet for 10 minutes, then transfer to a cooling rack to cool completely before dipping.
8. Make the topping: Melt the chopped white chocolate, oil, and espresso powder in a double boiler or use the microwave. For the microwave, place it all in a medium heat-proof bowl or liquid measuring cup. Melt in 20-second increments, stirring after each increment until completely melted and smooth. Dip each completely cooled cookie halfway into the white chocolate and place onto a parchment- or silicone baking mat-lined baking sheet or cooling rack. In a small bowl, mix together cinnamon and nutmeg. Using your fingers, lightly sprinkle a tiny pinch of the spice mix on top of the white chocolate-covered part of the cookie. Repeat with the remaining cookies. Place the baking sheet in the refrigerator to set the white chocolate, about 30 minutes.
9. Cookies stay fresh covered at room temperature for 3 days, or in the refrigerator for up to 1 week.

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Notes

1. Make Ahead & Freezing Instructions: You can make the cookie dough and chill it in the refrigerator for up to 3 days. Allow to come to room temperature then continue with step 5. Baked cookies with or without topping freeze well for up to 3 months. Unbaked cookie dough balls freeze well for up to 3 months. Bake frozen cookie dough balls for an extra minute, no need to thaw. Read my tips and tricks on how to freeze cookie dough.
2. Special Tools (affiliate links): Food Processor | Glass Mixing Bowl | Whisk | Electric Mixer (Handheld or Stand) | Baking Sheets | Silicone Baking Mats or Parchment Paper | Medium Cookie Scoop | Cooling Rack
3. Oats: Pulsing the oats in step 1 is the trick to this recipe. If you don’t have a food processor, use a blender. If you don’t have either, give the oats a rough chop on a cutting board. Even if you’re using quick oats, pulsing the oats is necessary—you just won’t have to pulse them as many times as whole oats. Do not use oat flour in place of the pulsed oats.
4. Espresso Powder: I buy espresso powder from my regular grocery store—in the baking aisle. If you can’t find espresso powder in stores or online, you can use instant coffee instead. You’d need a little more instant coffee since it isn’t as strong or rich as espresso powder. I don’t recommend using ground coffee because it’s not as flavorful as espresso powder or instant coffee, both of which have super concentrated flavor.
5. White Chocolate: White chocolate morsels are fabulous in cookies, but are not ideal for melting. And while candy melts are great for coating cake pops, in a recipe like this, you’ll really taste the difference between actual chocolate and candy melts. I recommend Ghirardelli, Guittard, or Baker’s brand bars of white chocolate, found in the baking aisle near the chocolate chips.