The Quintessential Christmas Cookie

Is there a cookie that says "Christmas" to you?  I think I've found mine.  

I had actually seen this cookie before, but never tried my hand at baking it. I am talking about a dark brown cookie that is rolled in confectioners sugar and then baked.  The end result is a cookie with brown cracks and snowy-white sugar.  Very winter, if you ask me.   

I searched for a recipe for this cookie and came across two of them.   One of them was in the book "Chocolate" by Nick Malgieri.  While I was reading the recipe, I couldn't help but wonder if it contained too much flour and not enough chocolate. 5 oz of Chocolate for 2 cups of flour?  Then I happened upon a recipe by David Rocco on The Cooking Channel (thank you Cathy Brydges for posting the link on Facebook).  That one made me wonder if perhaps it didn't have enough flour.  I decided to use both the recipes as my reference point and came up with my own.

Whenever I try something new, I always halve or even quarter the recipe.  That way if my experiment goes awry, I don't have to throw too much of it away.  The first batch I made turned out pretty well, with the exception of the last set of cookies I baked.  I am not sure what happened, but the sugar on the top burned and I had to throw them away.  The rest of the batch were absolutely edible, but they could have been better.  So on to the second attempt.  I think I nailed it.

CHOCOLATE FUDGE COOKIES
(Makes about 30 cookies)

1 cup all purpose flour
1 tsp baking powder
1 tbsp cocoa
2 tsp instant coffee granules
Pinch Salt
4 oz semi-sweet chocolate chips
4 tbsp butter 
2 large eggs
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup packed dark brown sugar
1 tbsp dark rum
Confectioners (powdered) sugar 


Combine flour, baking powder, cocoa, instant coffee and salt and set aside.

Melt the chocolate chips in a microwave, 30 seconds at a time, stirring in between.  Stir until smooth, then add butter by the tablespoon, continuing to stir in between.

In a mixing bowl, whisk the eggs for  a minute or two.  Add granulated and brown sugar and continue whisking.  Add chocolate-butter mixture.  Add flour mixture and rum.  Whisk well, scraping down the sides and bottom of the bowl with a spatula.  Cover the mixing bowl with clear plastic wrap and chill in the refrigerator for at least 2 hours.

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.  Put a generous amount of  powdered sugar on a plate.  Flour your hands and pinch off about 2 tsp of the cookie dough.  Roll it between your palms (it doesn't have to be perfect) then roll it in the powdered sugar using a fork, until thoroughly coated.  It may be necessary to roll the cookie dough in the powdered sugar more than once.  Repeat until all the cookie dough is rolled and ready to bake.  


Place the powdered cookie dough on a cookie sheet, a few inches apart as they will spread while baking.  Bake 15 minutes.  Allow the cookies to cool on the cookie sheet about 10 minutes before moving them to a wire rack to cool completely.  Store in an airtight container.