Addiction in a cookie, dipped in joy

Anyone who is even slightly acquainted with me is aware of my marginally debilitating coffee addiction.  If I skip my coffee in the morning due to lack of time, I slowly but surely begin an unavoidable downward energy spiral until I become a useless mass of tissue.  This usually reaches its peak in the early afternoon, and I can typically count on not achieving anything productive for the rest of the day. I've begun to accept that its a personality flaw, and have decided there are much worse things to be addicted to.
This flaw, however, has led to a discovery most marvelous.

Coffee cookies dipped in chocolate.

I've gone in search of exciting things you can do with coffee (one of which was an exfoliating scrub that makes your skin feel like happiness wrapped in silk). In my exploration I discovered this little number, and decided to make a few alterations to it.  Light roast coffee gets neglected in my house, so we just happened to have a chocolate-flavored coffee blend no one cared about.

Chocolate-Dipped Coffee Cookies
Yield: this depends on how big you make them.  I used a little 1½ inch diameter round cookie cutter, and I got about four dozen.

• 8 oz. unsalted butter, cut into quarter inch pieces (this is easiest to do when its cold)
  
• ½ cup granulated sugar
  
• ½ tsp. salt
• 10 oz. all-purpose or pastry flour  
• 2 Tbs. finely ground coffee
• ½ tsp. vanilla extract (I actually used butterscotch extract, but most people don't have this just lying around.  Really, you can use any extract you think would taste good, depending on what you like and what kind of coffee blend you're using.  Go nuts.)
• 2 Tbs. buttermilk (close to room temperature)

1. Combine butter, sugar, salt, buttermilk, and extract.  Mix until evenly blended.
2. Add flour and coffee, mixing until just incorporated.  Do not overmix these bad boys.
3. Chill dough slightly.  It needs to be just firm enough to roll out.
4. Dust a clean surface with a little flour and roll dough to about a 1/4 inch thick. Using a cookie cutter (or just free hand it), cut out your desired shapes.  Re-roll scraps to use up all the dough.
5. Make sure cookies are room-temperature again before you bake them.  Baking cold cookie dough can result in edge-spreading-crustiness while the center remains thick.  This will make you cry a little inside.  Hopefully just on the inside though.
6. Bake at 300°F for approximately 15 minutes or until slightly golden and firm.

Baked and awaiting chocolate loveliness

For dipping chocolate:

• 9 oz. semisweet chocolate chips (or just chopped pieces)
• 1 Tbs. unsalted butter

1. Melt butter and chocolate together over a double-boiler until smooth.
2. When cookies are completely cool, dip each one in the chocolate.  Set them on sheet pans lined with parchment paper or foil and cool at room temperature (don't put chocolate in the refrigerator).  Enjoy!