Chocolate Crackle Cookies

How to lesson # 1: How to make your co-workers like you.
There can be many answers to this question. Possibilities include: being a hard worker, offering to switch shifts with somebody in need, not making a mess in the staff room, being on time, etc. etc.

BORING.

A fail-proof solution, and my go-to: Make them cookies! Feed them delicious home baked goodies! You could make these chocolate crackle cookies... instant friend makers as I like to call them.

I did in fact, make these for my fellow co-workers. The girl who started working when I did had her last shift the other day, so I did what I do best and gave her a parting gift of cookies. And fed the rest to everyone else! It makes farewells a little bit more sweet. Especially when you dunk them in powdered sugar before you bake them. The cookies, that is.
Oh man, these were pretty darn great.

They are super soft! They melt in your mouth! And they are totally chocolatey. What more could you ask for? Oh right, powdered sugar. Makes them look a little more dressed up. It also adds a nice little change of texture on the outside. Like a sugary shell.

How to lesson # 2: How to make Chocolate Crackle Cookies.

Chocolate Crackle Cookies

Recipe from this book.

• 8 ounces bittersweet chocolate, chopped and melted.
• 1 1/4 cups flour
• 1/2 cocoa powder
• 2 tsp baking powder
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1/2 butter
• 1 1/2 cups brown sugar
• 2 eggs
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 1/3 cup milk (recipe calls for whole, which my fridge lacked, so I used skim)
• granulated sugar for rolling
• powdered sugar for rolling

1. Sift together the flour, cocoa powder, baking powder and salt.
2. Beat butter and sugar with a mixer until pale and fluffy, 2-3 minutes. Mix in the eggs and vanilla, then the cooled melted chocolate. Reduce the speed to low. Add in half the flour mixture, followed by the milk, and then finally the other half of the flour. This method is easier than the route I took: Forget completely about the milk altogether, realize it after refrigerating the dough, and attempt to mix it into an already chilled and hardened dough. Don't get me wrong, I made it work ;) but I would not recommend it.
3. Divide your chocolatey dough into four equal pieces, wrap each in plastic and refrigerate until firm, about 2 hours.
4. Once dough has chilled sufficiently to your standards, divide each piece into 16 little chunks. Roll them into 1 inch balls, and coat them with the granulated sugar. Next, treat them nice and roll them in a little powdered sugar. It is like a day at the Sugar Spa. place on a parchment lined baking sheet, and flatten them just a wee bit if you like... but not too much! Or they will not be the soft cookies of your dreams.
5. Bake in a 350 oven (or if your oven is like mine, 325 is best) until the surfaces begin to crack. The recipe indicates 14 minutes, but mine took less time, more like 10 minutes.

A note! The ever so wise Martha tells me (not personally, though I would like to think so) that it is important to roll the cookies in both sugars. When I first read that, I thought, TOO MUCH SUGAR. Then I realized, there is no such thing, and also, she tells us this because this way the powdered sugar stays on the outside of the cookie and does not soak in. Makes the finished cookie looking all pretty and white, and gives the outer shell a little bit of texture. Thanks Martha!

<3 Lari