This recipe comes from The Art of the Cookie by Shelly Kaldunski. One of the best features of this cookbook is that there is a picture to accompany every recipe, though they may be a little misleading to how your cookies will actually turn out.
One of the best things about this particular recipe is that it doesn't require any electric mixers.
The Ingredients
- 2.5 cups flour
- 1.25 tsp baking powder
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 4 oz unsweetened chocolate
- 1/2 cup (1 stick) butter
- 2 cups dark brown sugar
- 2 eggs
- 1.5 tbsp pure vanilla extract
- ±1/2 cup powdered sugar
The Process
Begin to heat a shallow amount of water in a pot. While the water heats up, mix together the flour, baking powder, and salt together in a medium bowl with a whisk.
Place the chocolate and butter in a large heatproof bowl. (The bowl needs to be large enough to hold all of the ingredients.) When the water begins to simmer, place the butter and chocolate over the water. The water shouldn't actually touch the bottom of your bowl. Completely melt the butter and chocolate. (To speed up this process, chop your chocolate and butter into small pieces, which can be done if you have extra time while waiting for the water to heat.)
Once melted, remove the choco-butter mixture from the heat and let it cool a little.
Mix the brown sugar, eggs, and vanilla extract (and vanilla seeds, if using) with the chocolate mixture with the whisk used earlier, until just combined (30 seconds to 1 minute).
Then add the flour mixture, and switch to mixing with a rubber spatula. (This will prevent the dough from being caught inside the whisk, which if you've done before, you'll know is an absolute pain in the bum.)
The spatula I used was actually really flimsy, so it wasn't mixing the dough very well. I actually switched to mixing with my (clean!) hands. While normally I'm a huge proponent of literal hands-on cooking, I don't recommend this; because of all the chocolate, the dough was extremely sticky and got stuck all over my hands. I ended up wasting a lot of dough that I couldn't get off my hands (and by waste, I mean happily licked it off my hands - so if you need an excuse to eat the raw dough, by all means use your hands!!).
At this point, I'd suggest tasting your dough if you aren't using actual vanilla bean seeds. You should be able to distinctly taste the vanilla. If you can't, add some more in.
Once sufficiently chilled, remove your dough from the fridge. Preheat the oven to 350F and line a couple of baking sheets with parchment paper. (There's enough to dough for 3 baking sheets full of cookies, but I only used lined two, as I was able to reuse the first sheet for the last set of cookies.)
Scoop the powdered sugar into a small bowl. I suggest only putting in a 1/4 cup at first, so you can judge if you need the full 1/2 cup later. Add more powdered sugar to the bowl as necessary.
Using a regular large spoon, scoop out approximately 1 tablespoon of dough. Mash the dough with your hand to combine it into one piece. Then begin to roll the dough into a ball with the palms of your hand. (The dough is pretty much exactly like play-doh, so have fun with this step and channel your inner child!)
Roll the balls in the powdered sugar so that it has a complete coating all around.
This next step is optional. If you wish to get rid of the excess powdered sugar on the dough-ball, the best and easiest (and funnest - bonus!) way I found was to lift the dough about 1/2 to 1 inch above the bottom of the bowl, and then drop it. The excess powdered sugar should shake off, completely so after a few drops.
If you shake off the excess, you probably won't need the full 1/2 cup. If you want your cookies completely packed with powdered sugar, you may need a little more. (Hence the plus-minus sign in the ingredient list.)
Place the balls on the cookie sheets, spacing them an inch apart from one another.
Bake the cookies until they look puffy and are cracked, and are firm on the edges (12-15 minutes).
Leave the cookies to cool on the baking sheets for at least 3 minutes. Then transfer to wire racks to cool completely. If you let the cookies cool on the sheets for over 5 minutes, you can transfer them just using your hands and forego a spatula (less dishes to wash - yippee!).
The Final Product
Some Notes
The recipe says this makes about 45 cookies, which is an accurate statement; I made 50.
Be warned: this recipe is pretty messy with the powdered sugar. There will be white dust all over your counters, and probably some on the floor as well. Don't say I didn't tell you.
The more powdered sugar is packed on, the whiter it'll appear as it won't melt as much. This will also make the cookie a bit messier to eat.
These cookies are pretty tall and round, which you can't really tell from the aerial shot above.
If you prefer a flatter cookie, and less defined cracks, you can flatten the dough-balls into thick cylinders. I did this with a few; the end product is shown to the right. (Personally, I prefer the ball version; they definitely look more interesting! The cylinder version makes the crackling seem accidental rather than on purpose.)
This cookie is sweeeeet. Sweet tooths will be pleased.
If I Could Do It Again....
I think I'd forego the powdered sugar. This added a lot of time, a lot of mess, and a lot of sugar. I personally would prefer the cookie to be a little less sweet, as I don't like supah sweet food. I will say that the powdered sugar definitely defines the cracks much more, which I appreciate!
Along these lines, I'd also probably use a little less brown sugar. If I did decide I wanted to use the powdered sugar, I'd definitely use less brown sugar.
The Final Verdict
These cookies were pretty dang good! The outside was crunchy, but the inside was still moist. I looove this texture. I'll definitely be making these again, though possibly with the adjustments mentioned above.
Even Pikachu enjoys eating these cookies!
These cookies seem like they'd be good to make for no reason! The forgiving chill time also means that you could pop these into the oven, especially if you skipped the powdered sugar step, right before guests came over and have fresh, warm cookies. Mmmmmm. With the powdered sugar, these cookies for osme reason remind me of Christmas - maybe because the powdered sugar looks a little like snow and the texture is akin to gingerbread snaps.
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