Chocolate Sugar Cookies
Last week a friend of mine sent me a box of cookies from a bakery she knows and loves that is located in Boston. I’ve never been to this restaurant, or to Boston for that matter, but I have their cookbook and love it so my friend wanted to share some of it’s goodness with me. It was such a kind gift, and so delicious! It was full of fairly basic cookies, but several that came with a twist. There was a snickerdoodle with saffron, as well as a chocolate cookie with cardamom, and potentially some other spices, but I really honed in on the cardamom. There was also a lovely snowball cookie, nice and buttery, a thin glazed oat cookie, a delicous sable that may have had tahini in it, and a nutty pistachio sesame cookie. They were all so good, and such fun to try a little sampling of the restaurant’s baked goods.
This was the inspiration box!
I was inspired after this, to do some cookie baking of my own. I was really drawn to the chocolate cardamom combo so decided to try and come up with something similar. A recipe for a chocolate sugar cookie came across my Instagram feed about this time which looked like a perfect place to start.
I followed the recipe but changed up the flavorings. I added cinnamon and some speculaas spice to the cookie base (I was going to add a little cardamom at this step as well but forgot, silly me). I then mixed cardamom into the granulated sugar that the cookies were rolled in prior to baking. The end result was a lightly spiced chocolate cookie, tender in the center and crispy on the edges. Perfect! I would amp up the spices next time to really highlight these flavors, but I didn’t want to go too bold initially. I didn’t want it to be overpowering. I would also remember to add some cardamom to the dough itself next time and really make a cardamom cookie through and through!
I would highly recommend this sugar cookie whether you want to spice it up, or keep it classic. Super easy, and baked up great! It would be really nice with some peppermint extract at Christmas. I bet it would make a really nice sandwich cookie, or ice-cream sandwich cookie. I even wonder about added some chocolate chips or chunks to the dough and making it a double chocolate cookie. We’ll see! Stay tuned…
Some of my Notes:
- Definitely use 1 tsp salt (double the amount called for in the original recipe). The blogger that I took the recipe from said she likes salt and so doubled the original 1/2 tsp salt. I wholeheartedly agree. It was great.
- First batch: shaped dough into 50 gram balls, baked exactly 12 min which was perfect! Resulted in a 3.5 inch cookie that spread nicely without being too flat.
- Second batch: shaped dough into 25 gram balls, baked exactly 10 min, which was good for this size cookie. So you can go a little bigger and make a 50 gram cookie, or smaller and get a 25 gram cookie, either one turned out great.
- Added 1/2 tsp cinnamon and a little specula as spice (too lazy to get out the individual spices!). Forgot the cardamom in the cookie like I wanted so first added 1/2 tsp cardamom (I think it was 1/2, not 1/4) to 50 grams of sugar to roll.
- This recipe will yield 34 25-gram cookies or 17 50-gram cookies (if you don’t eat dough that is!)
Chocolate Sugar Cookies
From Alexandra Cooks
Ingredients
2 cups (240 g) all-purpose flour
1/2 cup (43 g) Dutch processed cocoa powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
16 tablespoons (226 g) softened butter
1 1/2 cups (300 g) dark brown sugar
1 egg (50 g)
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Granulated sugar for rolling, 1/4 to 1/2 cup (50 to 100 g)
Directions
Heat the oven to 350ºF. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
Place the flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, and salt in a medium bowl and whisk to combine the ingredients. Set aside.
Put the butter and brown sugar in the bowl of a stand mixer. Fit the mixer with the paddle attachment and beat on medium speed for 2 to 3 minutes, stopping to scrape down the mixer once or twice, until the mixture is light and fluffy.
Turn off the mixer, add the egg and vanilla, and beat until the egg is thoroughly incorporated, 1 to 2 minutes.
Add the dry ingredients and mix on low speed until no flour is visible, stopping to scrape down the mixer once during the process.
Pour the granulated sugar into a small bowl. Portion out the dough using a 2-tablespoon scoop or measure or a scale — each portion should weigh 50 grams. You should have about 16 to 18 balls total. Roll each portion between your hands to form a ball; then roll in the sugar — coat each ball as generously as you are able to in the sugar. Transfer 6 balls to the prepared sheet. Bake for 12 minutes; remove from heat and allow cookies to cool completely on the sheet pan. Repeat this process, baking 6 cookies at a time.