As a chronic re-watcher—I have certain films logged seven (A Mighty Wind), eight (Original Cast Album: Company), and eleven times (Go) within the last few years alone on Letterboxd and somewhat freely admit it—and an avid re-reader; it so follows that I also like to return to recipes. And unlike films, when it comes to repeating recipes, I can tinker with the source material. In this case, I saw Angela Chung’s beautifully marbled and delicious-sounding Chinese Five-Spice Molasses Latte Cookies on her Moments of Sugar site and, immediately inspired, thought those flavours could find an ideal and somewhat lazier home in the already incredible Joe Frogger cookies I made last year; the result being these white chocolate-streaked Chinese Five-Spice Coffee Molasses Cookies. Not an improvement, just another excellent option.

The method and structure remains the same—an easy, melt-and-mix dough made bitumen-dark and heavy with molasses, warmed up with spices and just barely leavened by the faintest whisper of baking soda which does yeoman’s work of holding the cookies together. Where the recipes diverge is replacing the dark rum with equally grunty coffee—and you may be pleased to know, that instant espresso powder mixed with water will probably give you the most reliable results. I’ve also replaced all the spices with a hearty, bloomed tablespoon of Chinese five-spice powder. Where the recipes meet back up again to kiss is the retainment of the white chocolate and, as with the Joe Froggers I must insist that its presence is not mere frill and furbelow, it is intrinsic, load-bearing even!

Chinese five-spice is one of my favourite jars to reach for in my spice draw—now that I’ve finally tidied it and decanted them from their dusty, smushed boxes, I couldn’t have said this a month ago—with its lively yet warmly fragrant blend of fennel, clove, cassia, ginger, and star anise. Though I’m usually using it in savoury applications, the blend could not be more suited to pairing sweetly with the complex darkness of molasses and coffee. Molasses itself is something of a spice succedaneum, evoking their presence by proxy, and somehow able to both absorb vast quantities of spice into its dark abyss while being the perfect vehicle to illuminate them.

When coupled with the splash of coffee, these slightly chewy, slightly cakey cookies indirectly yet deftly suggest liquorice, bitter dark chocolate, brandy-soaked fruitcake, heady gingerbread, woody cinnamon, and throat-prickling black pepper—and believe it or not, the white chocolate traipsing abstractly across their surfaces is what truly brings it to life, with its gentle, buttery sweetness. If you prefer your cookies especially stern and foreboding you could, I suppose, leave it off, but I wouldn’t. Besides which, it really is only a tiny quantity that you need—drizzling chocolate is one of my favourite methods of making something from not much—though, this amount does provide for a little light spoon-licking in the process.

Despite my previous blog post, and a gradual lightness in the evening providing a glimpse of springlike optimism, it’s still pretty firmly wintry out there and with their fireside heat, these cookies feel especially suited to a cold rainy day. That same glorious plump spiciness inevitably suggests Christmas—perhaps with some gaudy red-and-green or gold sprinkles clinging to the white chocolate for visual effect…but as it’s still (just) August, let’s not get too ahead of ourselves.

If you’re similarly as entranced by molasses as I am, I also recommend this Dark Chocolate Molasses Fruit Loaf; this Blackberry White Pepper Gingerbread; Bryant Terry’s Ginger-Molasses Cake which I owe so much to, and of course the White Chocolate-Dipped Joe Frogger Cookies that led to these ones.

And if I may, a reminder that you can sign up here to hear irregular and unobtrusive updates and details about my forthcoming 2025 debut novel, Hoods Landing. Find out more, which you probably already know, at my official author website. You can also, thrillingly, pre-order Hoods Landing worldwide and locally for delivery or pickup—tell your friends! Tell your enemies! Tell the indifferent, who could be swayed in either direction!

Chinese Five-Spice Coffee Molasses Cookies

Meltingly dark and delicious cookies, rich with spices and the molasses going nose-to-nose with the coffee’s intensity. Don’t skip the white chocolate—it’s that fleeting vanilla-butter lightness that ties this all together. Before going shopping for these or any ingredients, I recommend checking out the Boycott Aotearoa zines so you know which brands to avoid. Recipe adapted from these King Arthur Joe Frogger cookies.

• 115g butter
• 115g brown sugar
• 160ml (2/3 cup) molasses
• 1 tablespoon Chinese five-spice powder
• 4 tablespoons (1/4 cup) strong black coffee (see notes)
• 290g flour
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 teaspoon baking soda
• 75g good white chocolate

1: Melt the 115g butter gently in a saucepan over low heat, then remove from the heat and stir in the 115g brown sugar, the 160ml molasses, and the tablespoon of five-spice—the warmth of the pan will allow the spices to really bloom into life. Remove from the heat and let cool a little, then scrape into a good-sized mixing bowl (I only say this because you need to refrigerate the mixture—if you can fit your pan in the fridge then feel free to keep the mixture in it.)

2: Stir in the 4 tablespoons coffee, then sieve in the 290g flour, 1/2 teaspoon salt, and 1/4 teaspoon baking soda, stirring to form a very thick, dark, sticky dough. Refrigerate the dough for at least half an hour, and up to an hour. About ten minutes before you’re ready, heat your oven to 190C/375F and line a flat cookie sheet with baking paper.

3: Scoop two tablespoons of the still-sticky dough at a time, gently roll into balls and drop onto the paper-lined tray, leaving about two inches between each ball. Flatten just a little with the back of your spoon. Bake the cookies for 12 minutes, carefully transferring to a rack after, where they’ll firm as they cool, and repeating with the remaining dough.

4: Melt the 75g white chocolate however you usually would—in the microwave, in a heatproof bowl suspended above simmering water, or directly melted in over a low heat in a pan—and using a teaspoon flicked lightly back and forth, drizzle the cookies haphazardly with the chocolate. These seem to need the chill of the fridge to properly set; otherwise you’ll be waiting a while for the chocolate to solidify.

Makes around 18 cookies, and they keep well for several days in an airtight container—refrigerated if it’s particularly warm where you are, in which case they’ll keep for ages.

Notes: On the coffee—you can use instant, though make it a strong brew; if you’ve got plunger coffee that works fine too, though the flavour isn’t as pronounced. If you can get your hands on instant espresso powder specifically, that will give the best, most robust flavour; and you can of course use actual espresso here.

music lately:

Escape Plan #4 by Strictly Ballroom, so sun-blinking-through-the-hedges dreamy and yearning and elusive (literally, in that their music is irritatingly hard to find online, but this is how listening to music used to be! You’d hear something once and then hope to maybe hear it again in your lifetime, with only a fragment of a lyric to remember it by. Good times.)

souvenir, by Deftones. New Deftones! Good news at last. The outtro makes me feel like I’m levitating.

Constant Craving by k.d lang, the Ingenue album is wall-to-wall excellent obviously but this song is still shockingly immediate, those dissonant tones in the chorus so unsettling.

PS: Feeling hopeless is a luxury that serves no one but those perpetrating the hopelessness. You can donate to ReliefAid’s Gaza Appeal, who are connected with teams on the ground in Gaza; you can donate to Convoys of Good, another registered NZ charity distributing aid. You can also donate to mutual aid accounts such as the one discussed in this harrowing but necessary story. Don’t be afraid of the non-matching account name when you transfer! As I’ve already mentioned, you can also demonstrate your control and power through the absence of your dollars. Boycott Zine Aotearoa has helpfully put together two comprehensive free zines so you can quickly see who to studiously avoid when buying food, drinks, household items and beauty products.