This weekend my daughter was rather crabby and when I finally got to the bottom of it her reason was that no one was paying attention to her. Poor kid! We were all so busy so I can understand why she felt that way. Part of my solution was to pause and pay attention to her and then I decided that she would get to choose one of our new recipes each week. She seemed pretty happy with that and chose this recipe from Martha Stewart’s Cookies.
Chocolate Crackles
(from Martha Stewart’s Cookies)
8 oz. bittersweet chocolate, finely chopped (I used dark chocolate bars from Trader Joe’s)- 1 1/4 cup all-purpose flour
- 1/1 cup unsweetened Dutch-process cocoa powder
- 2 tsp baking powder
- 1/4 tsp coarse salt
- 1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, room temperature
- 1 1/2 cups packed light brown sugar
- 2 large eggs
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 1/3 cup whole milk
- 1 cup granulated sugar
- 1 cup confectioners’ sugar
Melt chocolate in a heatproof bowl set over a pan of simmering water, stirring occasionally.
Once the chocolate is fully melted set aside and let it cool. Sift together flour, cocoa, baking powder, and salt in a bowl.
With an electric mixer, beat butter and brown sugar on medium speed until pale and fluffy, about 2-3 minutes. Mix in eggs and vanilla, and then the melted chocolate.
Reduce speed to low; mix in flour mixture in two batches, alternating with the milk. Divide dough into four equal pieces. Wrap each in plastic; refrigerate until firm, about 2 hours. (I thought the dough was way too sticky even after refrigerating overnight. I would recommend freezing the dough before the next step.)
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Divide each piece into sixteen 1-inch balls. Roll in granulated sugar to coat, then in confectioners’ sugar to coat. Space 2 inches apart on baking sheets lined with parchment paper.
Bake until surfaces crack, about 14 minutes, rotating sheets halfway through. (Mine only needed to be baked for 8 minutes. You’ll want to watch these carefully.)
Let cool on the baking sheets set on wire racks.
Cookies can be stored between layers of parchment paper in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 3 days.
Today a bunch of gorgeous leaves dropped from our Japanese Maple Tree and I couldn’t resist including them in at least one photo of these cookies.
Both kids ate the cookies without any encouragement. They are super-mega-chocolaty so I think a tall glass of milk would be the perfect accompaniment.
Try It You Might Like It 
These are so cute! And I love the picture of the cookies and the leaves in the background.
These look delicious!! If i was down and someone gave these to me, I know I will feel much better! And it being so chocolaty, that’s just perrrrrfect!
The picture with the leaves looks fantastic. I may have to subtly drop a copy of this recipe on the kitchen counter… 🙂
More like chocolate CRACK for me! Y-U-M! 🙂
We had family over for dinner this weekend and I served these cookies for dessert and they were a huge hit.
I remember making these when I was a kid too. We called them Chocolate Crinkles and they came out of the 4-H cookbook.
I think it was maybe my 4th or 5th foray into baking these and I was doing it all by myself. The recipe called for bakers unsweetened chocolate to be added to the batter. Feeling quite smart, I simple dumped the huge chocolate squares into the batter and then proceeded to blend with a blender.
30 seconds later the huge pieces of chocolate had jammed the beaters and I was threatening to burn out the motor when my Mum stumbled upon me. I had to take out the chunks and chop them up by hand (resulting in cashew-sized chunks). I insisted on forming the cookies and baking them, regardless of my mistake.
My Dad still swears they were the best chocolate crinkles he has ever tasted to this day (and that has to be at least 22 years ago!).
Too funny! I think the best recipes were probably discovered by accident.
Oh, gosh, these look absolutely delicious! And I love that last picture of the crackle cookies, with the leaves behind them. Aaaah. Chocolate + cookies = happy me!
So pretty with the Japanese maple leaves!
Neat shot with the leaves. Always had an eye for these cookies, like little works of art. Hopefully I’ll get around to making them soon — I know my fiancée would go nuts!
Cheers,
*Heather*