On to dessert: The Cookies Part 1 - Chocolate and Mexican Chocolate Cookies

Wow, I made it through all the recipes for savoury dishes at the Great Christmas Party 2009. I even made it through the chocolate soufflé pastry layer to go with the Buche de Noel, but I'll save the stories of the ridiculous amount of meringues that remain for the rest of the week. I get a little upset when I think about how last time it took three tries to make chocolate pudding, not soufflé, because those egg whites certainly did not feel like becoming meringue that day...but you can read my previous chocolate mousse post if you enjoy reading about someone else's misery. In fact, I encourage you to do so.

So cookies I can make. I've been making them since I could rub my hands together in opposite directions to form dough into balls. No small feat when you're that young. I don't think you can call "licking the pan" making cookies. Then my brother could make cookies and that wouldn't be quite true.

Basically the cookie concept for the party was to make:

Chocolate Cookies
Mexican Chocolate Cookies
Gumdrop Cookies
Oatmeal Cookies with Dried Apricots
and Oatmeal Cookies with Bittersweet Chocolate Shavings

This looks like a whole lot of cookie-making, but the beauty of this cookie menu is you're really only making two batches of cookies - chocolate and oatmeal. For the Mexican Chocolate cookies, my personal favourite of the chocolates, you knead 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon, a pinch of pepper and a big pinch of cayenne into half the chocolate batter. For the oatmeal cookies, you split the dough into 3 balls, add dried apricots to one, gumdrops to another (a family tradition), and shaved chocolate to another.

Here's the chocolate recipe from Alice Medrich's Chocolate and the Art of Low-Fat Desserts:

All-purpose flour
Cocoa
Baking Soda
Salt
Brown Sugar
Granulated Sugar
Unsalted butter
Margarine (I just used more butter. Alice Medrich only calls for margarine to reduce fat but margarine is currently getting it's legs pulled out from under it by Health Associations and chemistry teachers everywhere. Apparently it'll kill you faster than butter because its hydrogen bonds are harder to break down. Cholesterol isn't great for you either, but if you're going to eat a cookie then there's going to be fat in it, so it might as well taste as good as possible so you don't feel like you're depriving yourself. That's usually why I love this cookbook, but I guess it was published before the great margarine debacle)
Vanilla
Egg white

Add the flour, cocoa, baking soda and salt in a bowl. I sieve them to combine but you could whisk. Apparently it actually matters how much air is in even the dry ingredients. You'll (supposedly) get a fluffier cookie. As these don't rise and you end up kneading the life out of them anyway, I really don't think it matters.

Combine the sugars in another bowl.

In a 3rd bowl (a big one this time) beat the butter (and margarine) until creamy. Add the sugar and vanilla and beat on high speed for one minute. Alice insists on high speed when beating butter and sugar. She also insists that you don't skimp on the 1 minute beating time. I believe her this time.

Then beat in the egg white.

On low speed, beat in the flour mixture just until it's mixed.

Gather the dough into a ball and shape it into a log about the size of a...well, about as big a circumference as you like your cookies to be. I kept them small because the plan was to turn them into cookie sandwiches with an inner layer of frozen chocolate mousse (mousse, not pudding).

You wrap the logs in wax paper, twisting the edges of the paper, and chill 45 minutes or freeze up to 3 months. That's the beauty of these cookies. They're slice cookies so you can pull them out of your freezer, slice them into toonies or loonies...or large discs...and stick them on a parchment papered or greased baking sheet. Bake in a 350 degree oven for 12-14 minutes. If you slice them more than a "scant quarter inch" thick (Alice's words, not mine), you might want to up the baking time a few minutes. she also recommends rotating the baking sheets while baking to ensure evenness of cooking.

Mmm...the only problem with this recipe is if the butter isn't soft enough and doesn't cream properly, you'll end up with crumbly cookie dough. Even when you take it out of the fridge or freezer it may fall apart when you're trying to slice it. So make sure your butter is actually at room temperature. Not like pie dough, apparently, though I beg to differ.