Before we get to the good stuff, let me THANK YOU ALL for such a great response to this blog! It has been just over a month, and readership is steadily growing - I'm seriously pretty amazed. Looking at the analytics is a total nerdy delight of mine - especially now that they have live reporting - so keep up the good reading! I love hearing from people who have been trying recipes, seeing their pictures, and reading blog posts (thanks Mollie!) about my stuff! Another embarrassing confession: I started tweeting. Yep. Twitter. I'm on it. I've never seen the appeal in it, but I've read multiple other food bloggers (can I call myself that now?) recommending Twitter as a great way to expand your audience. I'm all for trying new things, so I'm tweeting away! It's actually turning out to be quite fun. Either click the link up top by the Facebook and RSS links, or just click Follow @thekitchenpaper.
These cookies are the closest I could find to a recipe I loved to make growing up. I bought a cheap Hershey's Recipes cookbook and don't think I made anything except cookies very similar to these - and they were AWESOME. Always. I love them. I'm not huge on sugar cookies (snicker-doodles are a totally separate ball game), so this soft, chocolate version is perfect! Annie's Eats recently popped up on Pinterest with the cutest designs with royal icing - a land I had yet to journey into. I've always wanted to make cute cookies, but never felt artsy enough to give it a go. This week, I got bold and got to it.
I'll admit: I could get much better at this. For a first time, though, I'm pretty proud of myself! Having the appropriate kitchen accoutrements would make it a bit easier, but I got by with plastic bags and kebob skewers. I didn't branch out too much with the designs this time, but next time I'm hauling out the big guns. The next cookies won't know what hit 'em! I did get a little bit bold here, per Derek's request, and free-styled a velociraptor, which we later posed in our jungle protecting it's eggs.
If you liked this post, you might like my How to Bake Heart-Shaped Cakes in Soup Cans post!
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Decorated Dark Chocolate Cookies
- Prep Time: 20
- Cook Time: 15
- Total Time: 35 minutes
- Yield: 20 cookies 1x
Description
Decadent and fun, these cookies have that rich dark chocolate flavor without the pretense.
Ingredients
Cookies
- ¾ cup all-purpose flour, plus more for surface
- ⅓ cup cocoa powder
- ⅛ tsp salt
- 6 Tbsp unsalted butter, softened
- ¾ cup powdered sugar
- 1 large egg
- ½ tsp vanilla extract
Icing
- 3 ¼ cups powdered sugar, sifted
- 2 large egg whites
- 1 teaspoon strained fresh lemon juice
- Assorted food colorings
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 325 F.
- Sift the flour, cocoa powder, and salt together. In a separate bowl, cream the butter and powdered sugar together until smooth. Add egg and vanilla, beat until incorporated. Add the flour mixture in two batches, mixing to combine.
- Separate the dough into two disks, wrap in plastic, and freeze for 15 minutes. When the dough is cold and hardened, take disks out one at a time, roll to ⅛" thick on a floured surface, and use a floured cookie cutter to shape cookies. Bake on a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper for 10-12 minutes. Allow to cool completely before decorating.
- Beat sugar, egg whites, and lemon juice together until thick and shiny. Add water to make it more runny, or powdered sugar to make it thicker. Use immediately or store in an airtight container.
Notes
- This cookie recipe doesn't make a ton (maybe 20 cookies), so doubling it would utilize all of the icing.
- I had to freeze this dough between rolling it out each time - it gets very soft very quickly.
- Annie's Eats has a great royal icing tutorial, helpful if you're new to it.
Gretchen says
Those are beautiful cookies!
TidyMom says
I LOVE these!! just beautiful!
mary says
Thanks Cheryl!!