ATK Chocolate Crinkle Cookies

Notes are at end of recipe. There's another recipe that we haven't tried yet.

INGREDIENTS

5 oz flour (1 cup)
1-1/2 oz (1/2 cup) unsweetened cocoa powder (see Notes)
1 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
10-1/2 oz (1-1/2 cups) packed brown sugar (see Notes)
3 large eggs
optional: 4 tsp instant espresso powder
1 tsp vanilla
4 oz unsweetened chocolate
4 Tbl (2 oz) unsalted butter
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup powdered sugar (see Notes)


PREPARATION

1. Roughly chop the unsweetened chocolate, combine with the butter in a small microwave-safe bowl, and set aside.

2. In medium bowl, whisk together flour, cocoa, baking powder, baking soda, and salt.  Set aside.

3. In large bowl, whisk together eggs, brown sugar, vanilla, and espresso powder (if using).  Texture will be like a grainy porridge.  Set aside.

4. Melt the chocolate and butter by microwaving one minute at a time at 50 percent power, stirring occasionally until melted, up to 3 minutes.

5. Whisk melted chocolate mixture into brown sugar mixture until combined.

6. Using a spatula, fold flour mixture into batter until no dry streaks remain.

7. While dough is resting for 10 minutes, pre-heat oven at325, with rack in the middle position; set up 2-3 baking sheets with parchment paper, along with cooling racks.

8. At the end of 10 minutes, place granulated sugar in one small shallow dish and the powdered sugar in another.

9. Working with 1 Tbl of dough at a time (see Notes), roll one dough ball first into granulated sugar (you can use a rounded teaspoon to help shape the dough into balls), and then transfer the ball into the dish with the powdered sugar and roll ball again.

10. Place sugar-coated balls onto prepared baking sheets, allowing room for spreading.

11. Bake one sheet of cookies at a time, until puffed and cracked and edges have begun to set but centers are still soft, about 12-14 min, rotating baking sheet about halfway through  (Cookies will look raw between cracks and seem underdone).

12. Place baking sheet with finished cookies on cooling rack to cool completely before transferring onto plate or container.


NOTES

1. This recipe is based on the one in ATK's Step By Step Holiday Baking magazine (2015)

2. Either Dutch-processed cocoa or regular cocoa will work in this recipe.

3. We used light brown sugar.

4. We omitted the instant espresso powder

5. Consider sifting the cocoa and flour together before adding the other dry ingredients, esp if the flour or cocoa are lumpy. This may help reduce the number of uncombined lumps in step 6.

6. The original recipe called for balls that were 2 Tbls of dough, but the cookies were plenty big with just 1 Tbl of dough. For 2 Tbls balls of dough, use a #30 scoop.

7. As we were rolling the dough into the powdered sugar, the sugar got compacted.  Rather than add more sugar, we fluffed it with a fork.

8. We used conventional white granulated sugar.

9. Finished cookies will be fudgy and soft, similar to the texture of a French macaron pastry cookie.