Thursday, May 5, 2011

Chocolate Sugar Cookies

The perfect, slightly sweet, chocolate cookie snack. Slightly modified from a recipe I found at Smitten Kitchen.  I think I'll use a few to make some mini ice cream sandwiches!  Or maybe dip one side in chocolate laced with mint!!!  Even better, maybe I could use that creme de menth filling from Mom's mint brownie recipe to make little chocolate mint sandwiches and THEN dip one side in dark chocolate. Mmmmmm.  Oh man, that sounds absolutely indulgent.  I wonder if Joel's office would be open to my experimenting?   
 
Anyhow, the original recipe called them Brownie Roll-Out Cookies, but they aren't really that brownie'esque if you ask me.  They're more like a chocolate sugar cookie, although they're not very sweet. 
 
I love that the recipe can be halved very easily, as I did.  I would guess a half batch made maybe 30 small (2 inch?) rounds, of which the two of us ate about half in one sitting (as we watched the Caps collapse finally reach an end).  At least we had tasty chocolate bedtime cookies to console us.  Hmmm, maybe that's what I should call them "Chocolate Bedtime Cookies," I like it!  (Hang on while I amend my subject line, there, done.  And Chocolate Bedtime Cookies are born...)
 
Ingrediants:
3 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1 cup butter, softened
1 to 1.5 cups brown sugar (depending on how sweet you want it)
2 large eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2/3 cup unsweetened cocoa (even better, use unsweetened dark cocoa powder, Mmmm)
Preheat oven at 350 degrees.
 
Combine flour, salt and baking powder in bowl and set aside.
 
Mix butter, sugar, eggs, vanilla and cocoa until smooth. Gradually add flour mixture and mix until smooth. Wrap in plastic and chill for at least one hour.

Roll out cookie dough on floured counter. Cut into desired shapes, brushing extra deposits of flour off the top. (It does disappear once baked, though, so don't overly fret if they go into the oven looking white.) Bake on a parchment-lined baking sheet for 8 to 11 minutes (the former for 1/8-inch thick cookies, the latter for 1/4-inch cookies) until the edges are firm and the centers are slightly soft and puffed.
Transfer to a wire rack to cool.
* According to my mother's recipe, they're called chocolate sugar cookies but I do not feel that it does them justice.