Tuesday, December 6, 2011

Cake of the Week: Chocolate Crackle Cookies

People get really excited about cookies at Christmastime. I get excited about cookies all the time, but since it’s December, and I just made these, and I’m giving them away as a gift, let’s be festive and call them Christmas Chocolate Crackle Cookies!


The recipe comes from my good friend Mary at Bake Break!. She just started this fabulous blog from her home in Montana, and her pictures are gorgeous! Mary and I go way back to the days of summer camp in Colorado. We were cabin-mates one year (she did rafting and I did mountaineering), and then both worked at camp for a couple summers after that. 


When she started her blog, I was pretty psyched to see what would come out of her cookie-loving kitchen. And so far I have not been disappointed.


I made these cookies last night – be warned, you must refrigerate the dough for 2 hours! This minor but significant factor ensured that I was up until far-too-late-o’clock baking cookies…but I didn’t really mind, the dough was delicious! And the resulting cookies taste as good as they look – they’re dense and chewy, more like brownies in cookie shape than traditional cookies. 


My office “secret snowflake," will not know what hit her! 
Chocolate Crackle Cookies (adapted from Bake Break!)
  • 4 oz unsweetened chocolate, melted
  • 1/2 cup butter, room temperature
  • 2 cups sugar
  • 2 tsp vanilla
  • 3 eggs
  • 2 teaspoons meringue powder + 2 tablespoons water (or you can just do another egg)
  • 2 cups flour
  • 1 tsp baking powder
  • 1/2 tsp salt
  • 1 cup powdered sugar


  1. Combine flour, baking powder, and salt in a small bowl. 
  2. In a stand mixer or large bowl, beat butter until smooth and fluffy. Add melted chocolate and sugar, mix until incorporated. (I mixed the sugar into the melted chocolate to cool it down because I was worried it would completely melt the butter.) 
  3. Add vanilla, then eggs one at a time, mixing fully between additions. Mix in the meringue powder and water. Stir in flour mixture. 
  4. Let the dough chill until firm, about two hours. 
  5. When dough is cold, roll into small balls before coating in powdered sugar and baking on a greased cookie sheet at 350 F for 10-13 minutes.

Notes and Tips:
  • Chilling this dough is absolutely essential – plan accordingly.
  • If you have trouble with the dough sticking to your hands, try rolling the dough with wet hands. Don’t get the powdered sugar wet though…



Enjoy!!!


(Go here for a printable recipe.)