Chocolate Crackle Cookies

My friend recently got hitched and toiled with the idea of giving cookies as the wedding favor. She hesitated over this, thinking that 200+ cookies to bake would be a terrible feat. However, with proper planning and preparation, any amount of cookies could easily be baked and assembled, with beautiful results.

While she didn't end up giving away edibles as favors, this gave me an opportunity to showcase the sensible side of baking. This chocolate crackle recipe is not only impressive when finished, it's easy to prepare the day, week, month before and frozen until ready to be baked.

I always partition and freeze at least half of the batch when making cookies. I usually bake 6 at a time for Buzza, which allows me to always have ready to bake cookies on hand and him to always have a freshly baked batch of cookies on demand.

These cookies are very fudge/cake like, instead of thin and crisp. Make sure you use a good quality chocolate, as the flavor completely dominates in this recipe. I used Scharffenberger 82% cacao, extra dark chocolate.

Recipe followed verbatim from Martha Stewart (as if you needed another reason to <3 Martha).

Chop up the chocolate into small equal pieces. This will help the chocolate melt evenly. Hint: 1) Use a serated knife, it'll cut easier. 2) Don't put your hand directly on the chocolate bar, as the warmth of your hand will melt the chocolate. If you must, put a clean kitchen towel in between you and the bar, or use the wrapper folded up to grip the chocolate. The flip side to this is that if you don't do this, you could end up one chocolaty and lickable hand. Oink! Oink!

Melt the chocolate over a double boiler, making sure to continuously stir the chocolate to prevent the bottom from being burned.

Add in vanilla and blend evenly. Set aside to cool as you prefer the rest of the dough.

Combine the flour, cocoa, baking soda and salt in a medium sized bowl. Mix it evenly with a fork, or use a sifter. Set aside.

Cream butter & sugar. It should look very fluffy and smooth, with no traceable grains of sugar.

Add in eggs, one at a time. Remember to scrap the bowl down after each addition.

Add in the melted chocolate and mix, until just combined.

Fold in the flour, a third at a time, scrapping the bowl after each addition. Mix until just combined. The dough will be very cake and fudge like.

Cover the mixing bowl with plastic wrap and chill in the freezer until firm. About 30 minutes to 1 hour.

Take out the dough and roll into 1 inch balls. Set them on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper, or a silpat. If you are a frequent baker, I would highly recommend investing in one of these. This will reduce your paper waste in your kitchen and it just a useful tool to have. You can get a fairly cheap one from Bed, Bath & Beyond.

If you decide to bake them at this point: pre-heat the oven to 350F.

Roll the balls in powdered sugar. Get a thick coat on there.

Some people prefer to roll them in regular sugar first, then in powdered sugar. I found that this didn't make a difference in the outcome at all.

Bake for 12 - 15 minutes, until they are cracked.

If you decide to freeze them at this point: Don't roll them in powdered sugar yet. Place them in the freezer as is. After an hour, when they are hard enough, you can throw them into a ziplock bag and store in the freezer. Pre-freezing will prevent them from sticking together. Also, if you pre-roll them in powdered sugar before freezing, the powdered sugar won't bake the same after being frozen.