Chocolate Crack (um, Crack-Up, rather) Cookies

My lingerie and lady-business posts vastly outnumber my recipes at this point, but even so, the recipes are embarrassingly choco-centric. I can’t help it, chocolate is my drug of choice. This recipe is another oldie-but-goodie from Death by Chocolate Cookies, and I’ve been making it since I was in middle school. These cookies are so, so good and appealingly simple: you stir your ingredients together, chill the dough while you’re doing other things (painting your nails and watching Captain America being my preference), put them in the oven, and through the magic of baking, the outside morphs into a craggy, crackled chocolate landscape. They’re also very tender, chewy, and addictive, and I’ll note that they don’t travel particularly well. No matter how carefully I’ve packed them in the past, they tend to arrive at their destination sadly beyond repair. They do freeze well, if you’re one of those weird people for whom batches of cookies linger longer than a few days, but be sure to seal the container tightly.

Chocolate Crack(-up) Cookies
adapted, barely, from Death by Chocolate Cookies by Marcel Desaulniers

4 oz. unsweetened chocolate
2 c. granulated sugar
1/2 c. vegetable oil
4 large eggs
2 tsp. vanilla extract
2 c. all-purpose flour
1 1/2 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. salt
1 c. confectioner’s sugar

Melt the unsweetened chocolate in a double boiler over low-heat, or in a small bowl in the microwave, stirring every 15 seconds until smooth. In a large mixing bowl, whisk together the granulated sugar and vegetable oil until combined. Whisk in the eggs and vanilla extract, then add the melted chocolate. Fold in the flour, baking powder, and salt with a spatula until all ingredients are incorporated. Cover the mixing bowl with plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 1 hour.

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. Pour the confectioner’s sugar into a shallow bowl. Line a few cookie sheets with parchment paper. Remove the chilled dough from the refrigerator. Scoop out heaping-tablespoon-sized blobs of dough, roll each blob into a smooth ball in your hands (this part will get wildly, wildly messy and sticky and also delicious), and roll each little ball in powdered sugar until well-coated (the more thoroughly coated, the better the crackles).

Evenly space each cookie on the cookie sheets, about 12 per sheet. Bake cookies for about 12-14 minutes, rotating the cookie sheets halfway through the baking time. Allow to cool at room temperature on the baking sheets for about 30 minutes. Store at room temperature in an air-tight container. Makes about 2 1/2 dozen. Enjoy!

July 22, 2012 by Sweets | 3 Comments