Ultimate Chocolate Cookie Book - Bruce Weinstein [14]
9. Pour half this sugar mixture into the bowl with the melted chocolate and stir until smooth.
10. Stir the vanilla into the remaining white icing mixture. Add more confectioners’ sugar as necessary until the icing is thick, smooth, and spreadable, like a warm fondant icing.
11. Spread a large piece of wax paper under the wire cooling rack holding the cookies. Frost half of each cooled cookie with the chocolate icing, then the other half of each with the vanilla icing. It’s best to place a small amount of icing on the cookie, then spread it with an offset spatula, but you can spread it with the back of a spoon, provided you wipe any icing off the spoon each time you use it. Place the iced cookies back on the wire rack so that any drips fall onto the wax paper. Leave undisturbed until the icing hardens, about 45 minutes.
Recommended storage
5 days at room temperature between sheets of wax paper
Not recommended for freezing
Customize It!
Because the cookie base is so classic in this recipe, the only real variations we recommend are with the icing. Here’s a colorful assortment, all made by omitting the vanilla in step 10 (in the vanilla icing).
Black Black and Greens: Stir in 1/2 teaspoon mint extract and 2 drops green food coloring into the icing.
Black Black and Oranges: Stir in 1/2 teaspoon orange extract and 2 drops orange food coloring into the icing.
Black Black and Reds: Stir in 1/4 teaspoon cherry flavoring and 2 drops red food coloring into the icing.
Black Black and Tans: Stir in 1/2 teaspoon almond extract and 1 drop brown or ivory food coloring into the icing.
Black Black and Yellows: Stir in 1/2 teaspoon lemon extract and 2 drops yellow food coloring into the icing.
BROWNIE DROPS
These intense chocolate treats taste like fudgy brownies, although they definitely have the texture of cookies. Soft and luscious, they will melt in your mouth. They’re best warm, a few minutes out of the oven (if you can wait that long).
MAKES A LITTLE LESS THAN 4 DOZEN COOKIES
1 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 cup cocoa powder, sifted
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
8 tablespoons (1 stick) unsalted butter, plus additional for greasing the baking sheets
2 ounces unsweetened chocolate, chopped
1 large egg, at room temperature
1 large egg white, at room temperature
11/3 cups sugar
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1. Position the racks in the top and bottom thirds of the oven; preheat the oven to 350°F.
2. Whisk the flour, cocoa powder, salt, and baking soda in a medium bowl until evenly colored; set aside. Butter two large baking sheets; set aside as well.
3. Cut the butter into small pieces, then place them and the chopped chocolate in the top half of a double boiler, set over a pot of lightly simmering water. If you don’t have a double boiler, use a bowl that fits snugly over a saucepan of simmering water—but be careful of escaping steam, which can burn your hands. Stir the chocolate and butter until half the mixture has melted; remove the top part of the double boiler or the bowl from the pot and continue stirring away from the heat until all the chocolate and butter have melted. Transfer to a clean, medium bowl and cool for 5 minutes.
4. Beat the egg and egg white in a large bowl, using an electric mixer at low speed, until foamy. Raise the speed to medium and beat in the sugar, pouring it into the bowl in a slow, steady stream. Beat in the vanilla and continue beating until the sugar has mostly dissolved, about 2 minutes.
5. With the mixer running at low speed, pour in the melted chocolate mixture in a thin stream, stopping the mixer now and then so you can scrape down the sides of the bowl. Continue beating until all the melted chocolate and butter batter is a uniform, chocolaty brown.
6. Turn off the mixer, add the flour mixture all at once, then beat it in, first at low speed, then at medium speed. Continue beating until the dough gathers into a ball, about 1 minute.