Vegan coffee kisses - delicious little coffee biscuits sandwiched with fluffy coffee buttercream. This retro British recipe is easy to make with just a few simple ingredients and they go great with a cuppa!

Vegan coffee kisses in a parchment lined metal tray.

Coffee kisses are a classic British sandwich biscuit dating back to the 1930's. The recipe is from an old Be-Ro flour cookbook and originally contained an egg so was not vegan-friendly, but a simple swap for some plant milk works great.

These are very moreish little biscuits (not cookies as they are very British!), with a delicate, not-too-sweet coffee flavour. The texture can be either soft or crunchy depending on how long you bake them for, so you can make them to suit your own preferences.

Close up of a vegan coffee kiss biscuit with a bite taken out of it.

A labelled photo of the ingredients needed to make vegan coffee kisses.

Ingredient Details:

Instant espresso powder: I prefer to use instant espresso powder rather than instant coffee granules as it dissolves easier; you can use granules instead though. You could also use Camp coffee extract, in which case you would need to reduce the amount of milk to compensate.

Self-raising flour: The original recipe used self-raising (self-rising) flour so that it what I have used. You could use plain flour plus 1 ½ teaspoons of baking powder if you don't have any self-raising.

Vegan butter: You must use a block butter/margarine to make these biscuits, not the spreadable kind in a tub. Spreadable will likely make the dough too soft, and the biscuits may be more tough as it contains more water.

You also need to use a block butter for the buttercream otherwise you risk it splitting. I recommend Naturli Vegan Block or Flora Plant Butter.

Sugar: you will need caster or granulated sugar for the dough, and icing (powdered) sugar for the buttercream. I do not recommend swapping these for any other kind of sugar or sweetener.

Plant milk: A bit of plant milk replaces the egg. I recommend unsweetened soya but any kind (except tinned coconut) will work.

Vegan coffee kisses in a metal tray, one with a bite taken out of it.

How To make Vegan Coffee Kisses:

(Full measurements and instructions can be found in the recipe card at the bottom of the page)

Step 1: Mix the flour and sugar together in a bowl. Add the cold butter and rub it in using your fingertips until no lumps of butter remain.

Step 1, the butter rubbed into the flour.

Step 2: Place the instant espresso powder in a small bowl and mix in a teaspoon of boiling water to dissolve it then stir in the milk.

Step 3: Scrape the coffee mixture into the flour mixture and stir to combine. Use your hands to briefly knead the dough until it is smooth.

Step 3, a two image collage of mixing the dough.

Step 4: Roll the dough into ½ Tablespoon balls and place them spaced apart on a couple of lined baking sheets.

Step 4, the shaped biscuits before baking.

Step 5: Bake for 12-20 minutes depending on whether you want them soft or crunchy.

Step 6: To make the buttercream, whisk together the softened butter and icing sugar. Mix the coffee powder with ½ teaspoon of boiling water and add it to the bowl. Continue to whisk for a good few minutes until very light and fluffy.

Step 7: Spread or pipe a little buttercream onto the underside of half of the cooled biscuits. Top each one with another biscuit and serve.

Rows of coffee kisses on a metal cooling rack, half of them with buttercream piped on.

Top Tips:

As with all of my baking recipes I really do recommend using the metric measurements with a digital scale rather than the cup conversions. Cups are a wildly inaccurate measuring system and you will get far better, more consistent results using a scale, not to mention that it is also easier and less messy than cups!

Make sure that the biscuits have cooled completely before sandwiching them with the buttercream, otherwise it will melt.

Use cold butter straight from the fridge to make the biscuit dough, that way you shouldn't need to chill it before rolling it into balls. For the buttercream however, you want to use softened, room temperature butter so that it whisks up nice and fluffy.

If you do find that the dough is too soft to shape, wrap it in clingfilm and refrigerate for 30-60 minutes to firm up a bit.

The vegan coffee kisses will keep in an airtight container at cool room temperature for 4-5 days.

More British Biscuits:

Close up of rows of vegan coffee kisses in a parchment lined tray.

If you tried this recipe let me know how it went! Rate it, leave a comment or tag @domestic_gothess on Instagram and hashtag it #domesticgothess

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5 from 2 votes