Double Chocolate Cookies

I just do not seem to be able to stay away from the cookies in this Martha book. I generally don’t bake a lot of cookies, but I seem to be drawn to these. I think one of the reasons is that cookies tend to be easier to make than cupcakes (fewer steps and parts), and I seem to be more likely to have the ingredients I need sitting around the house. I didn’t really make these cookies to celebrate any particular occasion, more because I wanted something to bake, and something to post on the blog for the middle of the week (expect some more things this weekend).

This time I made Martha’s Giant Chocolate Sugar Cookies. The pictures in the book really lack anything to give you a sense of scale when looking at these cookies, make no mistake, these cookies are gigantic. They get the majority of their chocolate flavor from cocoa powder, though I decided to up it a little and add a cup of semisweet chocolate chips to half of the batch (I doubled the recipe to start with). I thought these cookies were good, but not as chocolaty as I really like in a Chocolate cookie. On the plus side, they really are huge, which can have presentation value

Martha’s Giant Chocolate Sugar Cookies

Makes 8-10

1 ½ cups AP flour
½ cup Dutch-process cocoa powder
1 tsp baking powder
½ tsp salt
½ cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, softened
1 ½ cups sugar
½ cup vegetable shortening, melted and allowed to cool (According to Martha this adds to the texture, but butter can be used in its place if you prefer).
1 large egg
1 ½ tsp vanilla

1. Preheat the oven to 375. Whisk together the flour, cocoa powder, baking powder and salt.

2. In the bowl of an electric mixer on medium high cream the butter with the sugar on medium high speed until fluffy. Add the shortening, followed by the egg and the vanilla. Mix until creamy.

3. Reduce speed to low and gradually add the dry ingredients until fully mixed.

4. Scoop dough using a 2 ½ inch ice cream scoop (I used a 1/3 cup), space the cookies at least 4 inches apart. Bake for 18-20 minutes, or until edges are firm (mine were done at 15). I also found that these baked better with only one sheet in the oven at a time.