Don't worry- it's not snowing in NYC at the moment... however, I did whip up a batch of Cocoa Snowflakes over the weekend!
Yesterday we had our annual choir brunch to celebrate the end of another season. The brunch is potluck-style, and this year I brought these chocolaty cookies along to share. It was a new recipe (I hadn't made them before), but they were a HIT with the choir members!
One of the reasons I was drawn to this recipe (beyond the fact that chocolate cookies are delicious) was because all of the ingredients are things I had in my kitchen already.
I started by measuring the flour...
Baking powder...
And salt into a mixing bowl. (This is special baking salt from King Arthur- hence the different colors.)
Meanwhile, over at my stove, I melted some butter in a pan.
When the butter was pretty much melted, I added the cocoa powder.
Once the cocoa mixture was mixed to a smooth consistency, I removed it from the heat and added the sugar.
After a bit of mixing, it looked like dark sand!
I then added the cocoa mixture to the dry ingredients already in the mixing bowl, along with vanilla...
And two eggs!
Once the dough was combined, I poured it into bowl, covered it with plastic wrap, and placed it into the refrigerator for a couple of hours to chill.
Later that day, once the dough was cold, I proceeded with the cookies. I scooped a bit of the dough from the 'fridge (I wanted to leave most of it here to stay cold, so I only worked with a bit at a time). I rolled it into balls approximately 3/4-1 inch in diameter, and thoroughly coated each ball in powdered sugar before placing it on the baking sheet.
Once the sheet was full, I placed it into a pre-heated, 400 degree oven for 7.5 minutes (I wanted them a bit undercooked to ensure that they were chewy and fudge-y!).
When the kitchen timer buzzed, I pulled these tasty treats from the oven! (And yes, I suppose I went overboard with the Pam- oops!)
I've got to say- I think these cookies are really pretty!
And to top it all off, they're really delicious, too! I made sure not to overcook these babies, so each and every cookie was chewy and fudge-y... which is exactly what I was going for!
If you'd like to make these cookies someday, here's the recipe:
Cocoa Snowflakes
(Courtesy of Penzeys Spices)
Ingredients:
1 Cup all purpose flour
1 tsp. baking powder
1/4 tsp. salt
5 TB. butter
6 TB. cocoa powder
1 Cup sugar
1 tsp.vanilla extract
2 extra large eggs
1/2 Cup powdered sugar (for rolling/coating cookies)
Directions:
In a medium bowl, add flour, baking powder and salt, set aside. In a small saucepan, melt butter over low heat, add cocoa powder, blend well with a fork or a small whisk until smooth. Remove pan from heat, stir in sugar until combined (it will be dark brown at this point). Add to flour mixture already in the bowl, add vanilla extract, then eggs one at a time, mixing well after each addition. Cover the dough with plastic wrap, refrigerate until chilled (at least 2 hours). The dough never gets really stiff, but it won't roll into nice balls if it's warm. Preheat oven to 400°. Grab a handful of dough, enough for a cookie sheet, leaving the rest in the fridge. Roll each hunk of dough into a 3/4"-1" ball, then roll in powdered sugar. Place the sugar coated balls onto a greased cookie sheet, 2" apart. Bake cookies for 7-8 minutes at 400°, let cool a minute, then remove from pan.
Thanks for stopping by- I hope you had a nice weekend!
