Chocolate Sugar Cookies

I have a love-mostly hate relationship with those sweet sugar cookies thickly frosted with royal icing. Please do not get me wrong, I love desserts. But there is something annoying about the cloyingly sweet store-bought cookies. And it makes me feel so guilty afterwards.

My solution is actually pretty simple. Skip the icing. Bake cookies, put those Christmas themed cookie cutters to use, but stop short of icing them. Or maybe use just a little on a few of them. Everything in moderation, right?

Now, my major pet peeve about home-made sugar cookies are that they are so temperamental. It’s worse than taking a cranky 3 year old to a candy store. You can follow the recipe to a ‘T’, chill them, cut them, bake them and still end up with mis-shapen or worse, burnt cookies. At least I always seem to do. That is why rolled and cut sugar cookies are a once-a-year activity for me.

Boy is a typical 5 year old. He loves cookies. His current favorite are soft dark chocolate cookies. Those are kind of too dark chocolatey for my taste actually. But he loves it. So I decided that this year we would be baking chocolate sugar cookies for Christmas. I was on a hunt for a winner recipe and found one here. She also has lots of practical tips for baking cookies in general. I am sure it’ll help you if you too struggle with baking sugar cookies properly.

I have to tell you, we absolutely adored these chocolate cookies. I did have some trouble with the larger cookie shapes, especially the gingerbread man and bow shapes. I did one batch of cookies and unfortunately a few cracked and broke. So I did some troubleshooting for the remaining batches and here is what I learned.

1. The original recipe asks to roll the dough at least 1 cm thick and bake for 8-12 minutes. This is where I ran into trouble with the bigger shapes. They were extremely soft and broke easily even after 12 minutes in the oven.
2. For the next batch, I rolled the dough slightly thinner and used a smaller heart shaped cutter. These turned out perfect after 8 minutes of baking. Smaller cookies are a better serving size as well, especially for kids.
3. Whatever you do, do not skip chilling the mixed dough and also the cut cookie shapes before baking. They really make a difference and allow the cookies to maintain their shapes better while baking.
4. Have multiple baking sheets or pans on hand. If you do not, remember to cool the pans completely before placing the next batch of cookies on them.
5. Cookies made from re-rolled dough scraps will not turn out as pretty as the original batch, that is a given. I have even seen recipes telling you to simply discard the scraps. But in my opinion, that is totally unnecessary and a big waste of food. While they may not turn out perfect, the cookies will still be delicious. Use every last bit of scrap dough, always remembering to chill the cookies well before baking.
6. Lastly, cool the cookies completely on a wire rack before storing them in airtight containers. These stay fresh for many days. Well, that is, if they last so many days at this time of year!

CHOCOLATE SUGAR COOKIES {MADE WITH COCOA POWDER}

(Recipe Courtesy: Sweetopia)

You will need: (Makes 1 1/2 dozen medium-sized or 2 dozen smaller cookies)

• All purpose flour – 2 cups
• Unsweetened dark cocoa powder – 3/4 cup
• Salt – 1/2 tsp
• Butter – 1 cup, softened at room temperature
• Sugar – 1 cup
• Egg – 1, large (at room temperature)
• Vanilla extract – 1 tsp

How to:

• Sift the flour, cocoa powder and salt together. Whisk well to combine and keep aside.
• In a mixing bowl, cream the butter and sugar on low-medium speed till just combined. You do not need to incorporate much air into it like you would for a cake batter.
• Add egg and vanilla extract and beat again to combine well. Scrape the sides and bottom with a spatula to ensure everything is mixed well.
• Tip in the dry ingredients and fold gently with a spatula. This is done so that the flour doesn’t fly all over the place when you use the mixer. Now turn on the electric mixer and combine on medium speed till the dough clumps together.
• Gather the dough into a ball and roll it out between two sheets of parchment or wax paper. Refrigerate for an hour at least.
• Remove from the fridge and roll out the dough further if needed. Cut out shapes using cookie cutters and arrange them on foil or parchment paper lined (un-greased) baking sheets. Refrigerate again for 10-20 minutes.
• Meanwhile, pre-heat the oven to 350 deg.F (with the rack in the center of the oven).
• Bake the chilled dough for 8-12 minutes or till the centers are just cooked. Cookies will set further when cooled.
• Remove from oven and cool in pan for a couple of minutes, then remove the cookies carefully and cool completely on a wire rack.
• Frost the cookies once they are completely cooled or leave them plain. Store in airtight containers.

Notes:

• You can either roll the cookie dough thick (as thick as 1 cm) or thin, depending on whether you like extra soft cookies or cookies with a bite. I would suggest 10-12 minutes for thicker cookies and 8 minutes for the thinner ones.
• Refer my points given above the recipe for more tips.

These cookies have an intense chocolate flavor from the dark cocoa powder. Try this sugar cookie recipe for this Christmas, especially if you have a chocolate fanatic in the house! My lil’ guy absolutely loved them!

Frost or decorate the cookies if you like. But these cookies are amazing even otherwise. Do try it and let me know if you like them.

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