Rainy Daze and Chocolate Craves!

What is better than the aroma of cookies baking on a rainy fall day? I decided to pull a recipe from "Chocolate Snowball and other Fabulous Pastries from Deer Valley Bakery" by Letty Halloran Flatt.

The book can be purchased on Barnes and Noble.com:
http://search.barnesandnoble.com/Chocolate-Snowball/Letty-Halloran-Flatt/e/9780762761111/?itm=1&USRI=chocolate+snowball

Deer Valley Bakery was a bakery at  Deer Valley Ski Resort in Park City, Utah (it has since been renamed Snow Park Bakery). One of the great things about this cookbook is that it includes adjustments for high altitude baking (this is great for my friend's daughter, who moved to Montana).

Letty Flatt has a cooking blog if you're interested: http://muffintalk.wordpress.com/
Her blog states she is a vegetarian gourmet cook, so it is full of great recipes if you're into vegetarian cooking or good healthy cooking!

I was looking for something that would go well with a big cup of coffee or hot chocolate. I think this recipe satisfies the bill. This makes a crisp cookie (also good for dunking in milk!).

CHOCOLATE ESPRESSO SLICE and BAKE

1/2 lb (2 sticks) unsalted butter
1/2 c and 1 tbsp sugar
1/2 c firmly packed brown sugar
1 egg
2 tsp instant espresso coffee powder
1 tsp vanilla extract
2 c all purpose flour
1 tbsp cocoa powder
1tsp ground cinnamon
3/4 tsp salt
4 oz bittersweet chocolate, grated*

* You can use the grater attachment of a food processor if you have one.

Mise en place.

In a large bowl, using an electric mixer (I used a stand mixer), cream the butter, sugar and brown sugar until light and fluffy.  In a small bowl, whisk the egg with the espresso powder and vanilla.  Add to the butter mixture; scape the sides and bottom of the bowl. Sift together the flour, cocoa powder, cinnamon and salt.  Mix into the creamed butter, scraping again. Stir in the grated chocolate.
Note: For high altitude: Eliminate the extra tbsp of sugar, reduce the brown sugar to 1/3 c.

Finished dough (try not to eat all of it!).

Divide the dough in half. On a piece of parchment or waxed paper, form each portion of the dough into a 1 1/4 inch square (or round) log, 11" long. Wrap the parchment around the log and use it to square up the corners. Refrigerate for 2 hours or freeze for 45 minutes (I used the time to clean up my messy kitchen!), until firm enough to slice.  You can bake one batch now and save the other for later (perhaps when surprise company arrives?).

Roll out dough into an 11" log.

Dough ready for the freezer.

Preheat the oven to 325°.  Line 3 large baking sheets with parchment paper or oil them lightly with canola oil.  Slice 1/8" squares (or circles) and arrange on baking sheets 1/2" apart.

Slice cookies 1/8" thick.

Ready for the oven!

Bake 12 - 15 minutes, until the cookies have lost their wet shine and you can slide a cookie on the baking sheet and it will move without losing shape. My oven is a perfect 325° and the cookies took 12 minutes.

Perfect!

 Makes about 9 dozen cookies (I did indeed get 4 1/2 dozen from one cookie log).

These are a delicious crispy cookie with mocha and a little hint of spice! Too plain for you? Then dress them up!
How about a little sandwich cookie with a Nutella center?

Of course, you can sandwich them between other gooey things like Marshmellow Fluff, frosting, jelly etc....

Thinking this would be a great cookie for Christmas too!

Enjoy and Happy Baking!