Chocolate Snowflake Crackles

7th Cookie in the series.

6 Tablespoons butter

3 squares unsweetened chocolate, melted

1 1/2 cups sugar

1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder

1/4 teaspoon salt

2 eggs

1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla

1 1/2 cups flour

Extra powder sugar for rolling

Makes 4 1/2 dozen

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Directions: 

Cream butter until light and fluffy.

Add melted chocolate and sugar, blend well.

Add eggs, baking powder, salt and vanilla. Mix well.

Add flour.

This dough NEEDS to be chilled. It's the consistency of thick frosting at first. You'll never be able to work with it. Chill overnight.

Heat oven to 350*F

Shape dough into 1-inch balls. Roll in powdered sugar and place on parchment lined cookie sheets. Bake 10-12 minutes. Don't worry if they look a bit underdone when you take them out. These delicious cookies are tender like bites of warm brownie. Don't over bake them. They will firm up as they cool.

Maybe I'm a little OCD, but when I say that I measure my cookie dough with my scoop to keep consistent results, I'm not kidding. I fill the scoop and push any excess off the scoop. The scoop is filled, but not over filled. The cookies will then not only be the same size, but they will cook evenly. You will not have some under cooked and some on the verge of burning.

Roll in powdered sugar before placing on baking tray.

Beautiful AND tasty! :)

Enjoy!

Sparkling Ginger Snaps

3rd cookie in the series. We've done all the basics, so you should be able to follow this with less hand holding. :)

6 Tablespoons butter

1/2 cup sugar

1/2 cup brown sugar

1 egg

1/2 teaspoon vanilla

1/4 cup molasses

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon ground ginger

1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

1/4 teaspoon ground cloves

2 cups flour

Extra sugar for dipping

Makes 4-4.5 dozen

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Directions:

Cream the butter and sugars. Whipping air in well.

Add eggs, vanilla and molasses. Scrape all the molasses. I know it wants to stick in the cup, but try your best! Blend well after these ingredients.

Add spices and baking soda. Mix well.

Add flour slowly so it incorporates nicely without throwing it out of the bowl at you.

Wrap dough ball in plastic and refrigerate at least an hour.

Heat oven to 325*F

After chilling, Shape into small balls. I use my small scoop and it's about 1.25 inches wide. Roll balls into sugar before placing on parchment lined cookie sheet. If you have large grain sugar (see below), it's nice and sparkly on the cookies, if not, standard sugar works perfectly well! They WILL spread, leave at least an inch and a half between them.

Bake 12-15 minutes. My oven, it's 14 minutes. Remove from oven, allow to cool on the tray for a few minutes. Then slide parchment off the cookie sheet and allow to cool on the counter until cool.

Crunchy and chewy! ALWAYS a Christmas favorite! 

YUM! The outside is crisp and crunchy with the sugar. The inside is chewy and scrumptious! A favorite for Santa's plate of cookies!