Tuesday, June 1, 2010

Grammy's Chocolate Cookies


My daughter Andrea is giving her best friend Eryn a bridal shower at the end of July, just a week after I get back from Italy, and Andrea has asked me to help her out. I won’t give away everything we are making for the shower just in case Eryn reads this, but I can say that I will be baking some cookies for the event. As well, my friend and neighbour Maria asked if I would bake some cookies for her son’s fiancĂ©’s shower, taking place the day after I get back. So I will hit two birds with one stone by baking big batches of cookies ahead of time for both parties. I asked Andrea, while she was on the phone with Eryn one day, to ask her what kind of cookies she likes and without any hesitation Eryn said “anything with chocolate”.

As I flipped through my binder of recipes for cakes and cookies I’ve collected over the years I came across a chocolate cookie that would fit this bill. Grammy's Chocolate Cookies are chocolaty crisp cookies that would satisfy any chocolate lover as the recipe has a generous ¾ cup of cocoa powder and it yields over 100 cookies, plenty for both showers.

I can just picture Grandma baking up a batch of this easy cookie for all her grandchildren when they come to visit and I can picture all her grandchildren dunking these delicious cookies in their glasses of milk and devouring every single bite.

They really are very simple to whip up. Mix the butter, sugar and eggs until light a fluffy and gradually add a mixture of dry ingredients, flour, baking powder, cocoa, salt into the egg mixture. Refrigerate the dough for one hour and then roll the dough into one inch balls and dip the top of th cookie into a bit of granulated sugar. Place the balls onto parchment paper on a cookie sheet and bake for 8 to 10 minutes. The little balls of dough flatten out as they bake. I placed them into freezer bags to keep for the shower.


Grammy’s Chocolate Cookies
Makes about 100

2 cups all-purpose flour
3/4 cup Dutch-process cocoa powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
½ teaspoon salt
1-1/4 cups unsalted butter, room temperature
2 cups sugar, plus more for dipping
2 large eggs
2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract

1. Sift together flour, coco powder, baking soda, and slat. Set aside.
2. In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat butter, sugar, and eggs on medium speed until light and fluffy, about 2 minutes. Add vanilla, and mix to combine. Gradually add dry ingredients, and combine with mixer on low speed. Cover bowl with plastic wrap, and chill until dough is firm, about 1 hour.
3. Heat oven to 350 F. Line baking sheets with parchment paper or Silpat mats. Roll dough into 1-inch balls. Dip top of each ball into sugar. Place on prepared baking sheets about 1-1/2 inches apart. Bake until set, about 8 minutes. Transfer to a rack to cool. Cool on Baking Sheets for 5 minutes before transferring to a wire rack to cool

4 comments:

Melinda said...

These cookies will be wonderful the shower! It does make a good load of cookies, which is a good thing.
Your trip is very close now. So exciting! Be sure to take lots of foodie pictures for your snoopy blog friends. (uhh...me!)

doughadear said...

Hello Melinda,
There are a few more baked goods I would like to make before I go away. I want to get as much done to help my daughter out before I go because the week leading to the shower will be busy getting ready for it and I need to feel organized.
I plan to take plenty of photos of food so that I can satiate my snoopy friends' appetite.;)

evil cake lady said...

Wow, 100 cookies is a lot of cookies! I have made a similar cookie from a Sunset cookie book my mom had, and they were delicious. I bet these are even better.

Have fun in Italy!! I've always wanted to go to Italy; I can't wait to read all about your trip!

doughadear said...

Jennifer
These cookies are very chocolaty and sweet. I needed a large recipe for the two showers I was baking for. Some of the other cookies I baked have already been blogged about so I didn't mention them here.
Thank you for your good wishes. You would love Italy especially the food.