Grammy's Chocolate Cookies

We had another birthday in the office last week and despite the record breaking high temperatures we've been experiencing here, I offered to turn on my oven for some birthday cookies. I debated the recipe as this coworker had not noted a favorite from Martha's book. And while I love my coworker, she opted for the "whatever you want to bake" option.

So I chose Grammy's Chocolate Cookies from the book. The picture was very appetizing and the recipe didn't call for any odd techniques or outlandish ingredients (who am I kidding, I now keep at least 2 whole vanilla beans in my pantry at all times!). It did call for Dutch Process Cocoa Powder, which I recall seeing on Good Eats - Alton Brown, I love you! - that there is a difference between regular, natural cocoa powder and dutch process. Something with alkalies and chemical reactions. I had regular cocoa powder in the house, 3 kinds, actually. One kind being particularly good - Scharffenberger. Try their bars or chips; you'll thank me later. The 2 others are readily available at the regular supermarket. I made a couple of stops at a few different stores looking for dutch process but couldn't find any. A friend suggested one other store before heading to the specialty shops and I found a dark blend that included dutch process and figured that was better than nothing.

The recipe was straightforward and easy to follow. The dough needed to rest in the refrigerator for an hour before rolling into balls so that gave me a little time to catch up on my TiVo backlog. I rolled the dough, rolled the balls around in white sanding sugar and baked em. I used up every last bit of white sanding sugar that I had.

The dough looked like pretty little rum balls before going in the oven!

These cookies baked up beautifully! They were crisp, but not break-a-tooth-when-you-take-a-bite crisp. They were a little on the dark chocolate side, considering the cocoa powder I used, but still very tasty. They'd go perfect with a nice, cold glass of milk.

Almost like homemade Oreos, but better!

As usual, they went over very well at the office. I should have saved some for my neighbor but I didn't want to share my leftovers. :) This is definitely a recipe that I will repeat.

Post Script: At the store today, the regular store on my way home from work, I found the dutch process cocoa powder in the baking aisle. I almost didn't look, considering the luck I had (I even called Central Market looking for it but got disconnected twice). So now I have some. Friends on Facebook suggesting looking into King Arthur and I think I'll order from there, too. Who knew they did more than flour?!

Post Post Script: I found a book of ice cream and sorbet recipes at Half Priced Books over the weekend. Maybe I'll bust out with ice cream this weekend!