Cookies!

I made this recipe at Halloween, and a friend at worked liked it so much that she asked for the recipe.  When I made these again for the office Christmas lunch, I actually remembered to post the recipe for her.  Progress!

The Recipe: Soft Frosted Chocolate Sugar Cookies from The Baker Chick.

The Baker Chick, in turn, found her Chocolate Sugar Cookie recipe on Cooking Classy.  I've copied the recipe here, with my few notes.

Yield: 2-4 dozen cookies, depending on the size of the cookies (the size I make, I get about 3 dozen)

Ingredients

• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• ½ cup cocoa powder
• ½ tsp baking powder
• ¼ tsp baking soda
• ½ tsp salt
• ½ cup granulated sugar
• ½ cup light-brown sugar
• 9 Tbsp butter, softened (1 stick + 1 Tbsp)
• 2 Tbsp sour cream
• 1 large egg
• 1 large egg yolk
• ½ Tbsp vanilla extract

For the Frosting:

• 12 tablespoons (1 ½ sticks) butter, softened
• 4 cups of powdered sugar
• 2 teaspoons of vanilla extract
• 1-2 tablespoons milk or cream
• food coloring(optional)
• toppings - sprinkles, nonpareils, colored sugar, etc.

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. 
2. In a mixing bowl, whisk together, flour, cocoa, baking powder, baking soda and salt, set aside.
3. In the bowl of an electric mixer, mix together granulated sugar, brown sugar, butter and sour cream until light and fluffy (about 3-4 minutes).
4. Add the egg, egg yolk and vanilla and mix until well combined. Slowly add in dry ingredients and mix until incorporated (dough will be thick!).
5. Scoop 1-2 tablespoon sized portions of dough and form into balls (depending on how big you want your cookies.)
6. Place dough-balls onto parchment-lined cookie sheets and evenly flatten to about ½ inch thick. The cookies don't spread much so they can be relatively close.
7. Bake in preheated oven 9 - 10 minutes. Allow to cool completely before frosting (very important!).

For the Frosting:

1. Place softened butter in a large bowl and whip until creamy and pale. 
2. Add the powdered sugar 1 cup at a time until thick and smooth. If using unsalted butter, you might want to add a pinch of salt to offset the sweetness (adjust to your own taste).
3. Add in vanilla and milk or cream until frosting is dense and creamy. 
4. Add food coloring, if using. Mix until color is well-blended and consistent.
5. Frost cookies.  Top with sprinkles, if desired.

Notes, Variations, Etc.:

The frosting dries and hardens a little after a very short while, which means that the cookies can be stacked in an container without smearing.  Nice!  Still a good idea to have a sheet of waxed paper between the layers, though.

The overall idea is to have a nice, soft, rich chocolate cookie, almost dark chocolate in taste, which can then be frosted without being too sweet.  My friend called them "brownie cookies" because they are very soft and rich.What I like so much about these cookies (aside from being yummy) is that they are fun.  The frosting offers so much possibility!  So many possible color and/or flavor combinations!!  Like the Lofthouse cookies you see in grocery stores all over, with the seasonally-colored frosting and sprinkles.  Except these are homemade and chocolate instead (both important pluses, in my book!).

For the batch in October, I used The Baker Chick's original recipe, making just plain frosting with food coloring to make things orange.  The chocolate cookies were naturally nice and dark, a nice contrast to the orange, and then I topped it all off with Halloween sprinkles.  Festive! 

And no, the frosting isn't as spread as thick on the cookies as you might think.  The uneven surface of the cookies makes them look more thickly frosted.  If you are comparing pictures between websites closely, The Baker Chick rolled her dough to make smoother dough balls, and thus smoother cookies; I just went with the drop-cookie method, and didn't really press mine down to that even ½ inch depth.  Easier, but it does produce lumpier/peakier/less aesthetically pleasing cookies.  Still taste just fine though!  :)

This week, for the Christmas batch, I got experimental!  When I made the frosting, I decided to make peppermint frosting.  1 - it's Christmas.  2 - I'm a sucker for anything peppermint and chocolate.  It's a serious weakness.  After a little online research, there are two main ways to make peppermint frosting.  Either you add lots of crushed candy cane or peppermint pieces to the plain frosting, or you add peppermint extract.  As I didn't have any candy canes in the house, I went with Option 2.  Perhaps at Valentine's Day, I'll do the candy cane version...

To make peppermint frosting, I added 1/8 tsp. peppermint extract to the plain frosting as I was mixing.

I did notice that trying to make the red frosting meant that I had to add a LOT of red food coloring.  If I didn't, the frosting was a lovely seasonal shade of... pink.  Not quite what I was going for.  Between the red food coloring and the peppermint extract, I had more liquid in this batch of frosting than in the Halloween batch.  I ended up having to mix things more, and the frosting was more whipped than the first time I made these.  Not a big deal one way or another, but something to think about if you're making your own alterations.

Looking ahead to the next time I bake these, I might try the peanut butter frosting that Cooking Classy used in her recipe.  Peanut butter and chocolate is another personal weakness, one only slightly less serious than peppermint and chocolate!  And the Baker Chick has a Soft Frosted Pumpkin Spice Cookie too, if I want to try a falltime-ish cookie. Like I said earlier, the variations in flavors and decorations make these fun and seasonally appropriate year-round :)