CHOCOLATE COOKIES
Source of Recipe
Gourmet
Recipe Introduction
Active time: 40 min Start to finish: 5 1/4 hr
List of Ingredients
Ingredients for basic butter cookies
1/2 cup Dutch-process unsweetened cocoa powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
10 1/2 oz fine-quality bittersweet chocolate (not unsweetened), melted and cooled
Garnish: salted roasted pistachios, finely ground; Demerara sugar
BASIC BUTTER COOKIES
These cookies are absolutely delicious made with regular butter, but they become downright amazing with Plugrá or Land O Lakes Ultra Creamy.
Active time: 30 min Start to finish: 5 hr (includes chilling)
2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 sticks (3/4 cup) unsalted butter, softened
1 cup sugar
1 large egg
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
Garnish: coarse or sanding sugar*; or melted chocolate (see cooks' note, below)
Whisk together flour, baking powder, and salt in a small bowl.
Beat together butter and sugar in a large bowl with an electric mixer at medium-high speed until pale and fluffy, about 3 minutes in a standing mixer (preferably fitted with paddle attachment) or 6 with a handheld. Beat in egg and vanilla. Reduce speed to low, then add flour mixture and mix until just combined.
Form dough into a 12-inch log (2 inches in diameter) on a sheet of plastic wrap and roll up dough in plastic wrap. Chill dough on a baking sheet until firm, at least 4 hours. (To roll cookies into balls, see cooks' note, below.)
Put oven racks in upper and lower thirds of oven and preheat oven to 375°F.
Cut enough 1/8- to 1/4-inch-thick slices from log with a heavy knife to fill 2 ungreased large baking sheets, arranging slices about 1 inch apart (chill remainder of log, wrapped in plastic wrap). If garnishing with coarse sugar, sprinkle slices with it.
Bake cookies, switching position of sheets halfway through baking, until edges are golden, 12 to 15 minutes total. Cool on sheets 3 minutes, then transfer with a metal spatula to racks to cool completely. Make more cookies with remaining dough on cooled baking sheets.
Cooks' notes:
• Dough log can be chilled up to 5 days or frozen, wrapped in a double layer of plastic wrap, 1 month. If frozen, thaw dough in refrigerator just until it can be sliced.
• Instead of forming dough into a log and chilling, you can roll tablespoons of dough into 1 1/4-inch balls, then roll balls in finely chopped nuts (about 1 cup) and coarse sugar. Bake, switching position of sheets halfway through baking, until bottoms are browned, about 15 minutes total.
• To garnish cookies with chocolate, melt 3 1/2 oz chocolate and cool slightly. Transfer to a heavy-duty sealable plastic bag and snip a 1/16-inch opening in 1 corner. Pipe chocolate evenly back and forth over cookies. Let chocolate set before storing cookies.
• Cookies keep, layered between sheets of wax paper or parchment, in an airtight container at room temperature 1 week.
*Available at specialty foods shops and New York Cake & Baking Distributor (800-942-2639).
Makes about 4 dozen cookies.
Gourmet
December 2003
Recipe
Follow recipe for basic butter cookies, mixing in cocoa, baking soda, and melted chocolate after adding flour (dough will be stiff). Form dough into a 14-inch log (2 inches in diameter) on a sheet of plastic wrap and roll up dough. (Dough will be hard to slice and may crumble.)
If garnishing, roll edges of each slice first in pistachios and then in Demerara sugar.
Makes about 5 dozen cookies.
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