Grammy's Chocolate Cookies

My Sweet Melissa Sundays post will be intentionally late today, as opposed to most other weeks when I just don’t around to doing it until 9:00 PM, since I am making the muffins for lunch.



You’ll have to believe me: I’ve been making a lot of delicious things lately, but somehow none, save for my baking group creations, have made it to my blog. You know, we’ve just eaten things too fast or they’ve started to look sad before I’ve gotten around to photographing them. (On that note, it’s getting dark so much earlier! The window for photographing with natural light shutters too fast these days). Anyway, I finally got my act together and managed to take photos of these chocolate cookies.



I was inspired to open my poorly neglected Martha Stewart’s Cookies book* after seeing this chocolate cookie sugar cookie post on My Baking Adventures. The recipe I ended up making was slightly different (there are several tempting chocolate cookie recipes to choose from in that book) and incredibly good. My boyfriend proclaimed them the best chocolate cookies I’ve made, which is surprising since Dorie Greenspan’s World Peace Cookies have been a favorite since and scored a rare 10 rating in this household. I think I like the World Peace Cookies a bit better (I just love the way the salt enhances the chocolate flavor in them), but for a nice pure chewy chocolate cookie with a crunchy sugar coating, these are wonderful. It’s definitely not a bad thing to have multiple excellent chocolate cookie recipes in your repertoire, especially when they fall into different categories. This recipe gets a 10 for Deliciousness and a 2 for Effort, giving them an EDR of 5!



*The first recipe I made from this book was kind of a dud and so I felt a little resentment towards it. It did not help matters that I bought Dorie Greenspan’s Baking shortly after receiving the Martha Stewart book and was absolutely enchanted with it from the moment I opened it. I’m happy to say that I will definitely be baking more cookies from the MS book.

Grammy’s Chocolate Cookies from page 75 of Martha Stewart’s Cookies, CLICK for printable recipe page
2 cups plus 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
¾ cup unsweetened Dutch-process cocoa powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
½ teaspoon salt
1 ¼ cups (2 ½ sticks) unsalted butter at room temperature
2 cups granulated sugar
2 large eggs
2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
Sanding sugar, for rolling

Sift together flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, and salt in a bowl. (I didn’t actually bother sifting, but did combine very well with a fork.)

In the bowl of an electric mixer, fitted with the paddle attachment, beat butter and sugar on medium speed until light and fluffy, about two minutes. Add eggs and vanilla, and beat to combine. Form dough into a flattened disk, wrap with plastic wrap, and chill until firm, about an hour. (In the interest of time, I made the dough one night and baked the cookies the next. I let the dough sit out for about an hour before baking the cookies).

When ready to bake, preheat oven to 350 degrees. Shape dough into 1 ¼ inch balls. Roll each ball in sanding sugar (I shaped mine with a cookie scoop and after rolling in sugar, I flattened just slightly so they were more disk-like). Place on baking sheets lined with parchment paper or silicone baking mats, about 1 ½ inch apart – they will spread a lot. Bake until set, about 10 to 12 minutes, rotating halfway through. Transfer baking sheet to a rack to cool for five minutes. Transfer cookies from baking sheet to wire rack. Cookies can be stored in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 1 week. Makes 3 ½ dozen.