Dark Chocolate Crackle Cookies

So this holiday season, despite the workload, I wanted to make cookies for people to show how much I appreciated them. So, I put together tiny chinese takeout boxes (that were Christmas patterned) of four cookies: classic peanut butter cookies, pumpkin biscotti, classic sugar cookies, and these dark chocolate crackle cookies. These cookies are a twist on regular chocolate-chocolate cookies; instead of using white sugar, it only uses brown sugar in the batter. Instead of being overly sweet, white sugar on the outside compliments the cookie. The cookie also uses orange zest, which gives a tiny kick and a fresh, citrusy taste. These cookies are perfect for a more mature palette, one that craves something a tiny bit different than the classic chocolate chocolate cookie.

Adapted from Abigail Johnson Dodge from Fine Cooking

Ingredients

• 2-1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 tsp. baking soda
• 1/4 tsp. table salt
• 8 oz. (1 cup/2 sticks) unsalted butter, at room temperature
• 2 cups firmly packed light brown sugar
• 2 oz. (2/3 cup) natural, unsweetened cocoa, sifted if lumpy
• 2 tsp. finely grated orange zest
• 1 tsp. pure vanilla extract
• 3 large eggs
• 8 oz. bittersweet chocolate, melted and cooled until barely warm ( actually used semisweet and those worked as well)
• 3/4 cup (4 oz.) chopped chocolate (white, bittersweet, or semisweet, or M&M’s! hehe)
• 1/3 cup granulated sugar; more as needed

Procedure:

Position a rack in the center of the oven and heat the oven to 350ºF. Line three large cookie sheets with parchment or nonstick baking liners, like the silpat.

In a bowl, mix together the flour, baking soda, and salt. In another bowl, beat the butter, brown sugar, cocoa, orange zest, and vanilla until well combined, about 4 minutes. Add the eggs one at a time, beating briefly between additions. Add the cooled chocolate (make sure it’s cooled all the way! You don’t want those eggs to curdle, now do ya?) and mix until blended, about 1 minute. Add the dry ingredients and mix on low speed (so you don’t have a flour explosion!) until almost completely blended, about 1 minute. Add the chopped chocolate and mix until blended, about 15 seconds. Shape the dough into tiny balls, about 2 tsp-1 tbs big.

Pour the granulated sugar into a tiny bowl. Roll each ball in the sugar and set the balls about 1-1/2 inches apart on the prepared cookie sheets. Bake the cookies 11 to 12 minutes, maybe a little more if you’re doing more than one sheet at a time. They’re done when they crackle a little bit on the top, like pictured. Let the cookies cool on the sheet for 5 minutes before transferring them to a rack to cool completely.

Enjoy! Here’s the link to the original recipe:

http://www.finecooking.com/recipes/dark-chocolate-crackles.aspx?nterms=112342,50060