Ingredients:
DRY
- 3C AP flour
- 1/2C cocoa
- 1T instant coffee granules, crushed (I have a jar of Taster's Choice Decaf in the cupboard)
- 1/2t salt
- 1C unsalted butter, room temp
- 1C sugar
- 2 large eggs
- 2t chocolate flavour/extract (or vanilla)
Mix butter & sugar till fluffy then add eggs 1 at a time. Add flavouring.
When well blended and of even consistency, add dry mixture in 2-3 separate additions, scraping down the sides of your bowl. When mixture is mostly blended, finish mixing by hand.
Divide into two portions and place one portion between two sheets of waxed paper & roll to 1/4" thickness. Place waxed papered-sandwiched, rolled out dough onto a large baking sheet and place in fridge. Next portion can be put on top of this or on it's own sheet. Refrigerate for 15-30 minutes. (Can be left overnight but ensure the edges of the waxed paper are folded over well to limit exposure of the edges of your dough to the air. May need to sit out for a few minutes before you cut out.)
Take out one portion and peel off and replace one sheet of waxed paper then flip the dough over and peel off completely the other sheet of waxed paper to expose cutting area. (I do this so that when I'm cutting out the cookies they will lift more easily. Be sure not to snap or bend your dough. If you do, don't cry like me. :'D)
Preheat oven to 350F (I'm all for saving energy and my oven takes approx 4 minutes to preheat so I don't turn it on until I start cutting out the cookies as it'll be done when I'm ready for it.) I bought some Silpat thing-a-ma-jigs from the dollar store and cut them to fit my sheets. I like the way they give the bottom of the cookie a bit of texture. I found that using them, though, increased my cooking time from 12 to 13 minutes when I was just using the silicone baking paper.
Cut out cookies. At first they will stick to your cutter and if there are delicate portions, you may want to use some of your fondant tools to gently push the dough out of the cutter and onto your cookie sheet. As the dough warms up it will start to be left behind and need an offset spatula to properly lift it onto your sheets.
Bake for 12-14 minutes at 350F.
Personally, I always eat that teeny tiny piece of dough I have left and it's my absolute favourite part of making the cookies (unless I'm making gingerbread then I throw that right into the garbage as I hate gingerbread that much!). I know there are eggs in the recipe... I haven't been sick once and am still alive. Enjoy!
VARIATION: Mexican Chocolate Cookies - I added 1t pumpkin pie spice & instead of chocolate or vanilla flavouring I added 2t Pumpkin Spice flavouring. (I was hoping for pumpkin/chocolate deliciousness but ended up with chocolate/cinnamon cookies.)
The original recipe is modified from the book Cookie Craft by Valerie Peterson & Janice Fryer (excellent starter book).
