Chocolate crackle cookies

I came across a Martha Stewart recipe for chocolate crackles and thought they looked quite pretty so I decided to give them a try. However, I inadvertantly burned most of my chocolate and had to come up with a quick alternative since I only had a little bit of extra chocolate to spare. Here is my Plan B recipe along with photographs of what I ended up making (delicious!).

• Chocolate crackle cookies
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• 1 1/2 ozdark baking chocolate
• 2 tspinstant coffee
• 1/2 cwater
• 1/2 ccocoa powder
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• 1 1/2 call-purpose flour
• 1/2 ccocoa powder
• 2 tspbaking powder
• 1/4 tspsalt
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• 1/2 cunsalted butter
• 1 1/2 cbrown sugar
• 2eggs
• 1 tspvanilla extract
• 1/3 cupsoy milk
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• 1 cgranulated sugar
• 1/2 cicing sugar
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• Place chocolate in microwave and heat 20 seconds at a time until soft. Stir to melt and heat in 10 second increments if necessary. Set aside.
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• Stir instant coffee and 1/2 c cocoa powder in boiling water until smooth. Set aside.
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• Sift flour, remaining cocoa powder, baking powder, and salt.
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• Beat butter and brown sugar. Add eggs, vanilla, melted chocolate, and coffee/cocoa liquid and mix until smooth.
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• Alternately add flour mixture and milk to wet ingredients and mix.
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• Divide dough into four sections and refrigerate at least two hours.
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• Taking one section out at a time, roll into 1" balls, dip first into granulated sugar, then icing sugar. Place 3" apart on a lined cookie tray and bake at 350 degrees F for 14 minutes.

Beating the butter and brown sugar is easy and the mixture smelled heavenly. This is what it looks like:


Adding the eggs and vanilla changes the consistency considerably:


The addition of melted chocolate and coffee/cocoa liquid makes the mix very smooth and rich:


Alternatively adding the flour mixture and milk in thirds ensures the dough does not become too dry or liquid because either would make it hard mix properly. This is what the it looks like once prepared:


Due to the liquid content from my Plan B coffee/cocoa mix, the dough was quite liquid and I probably could have separated it into four bowls. Instead, I wrapped it up and left it in the fridge overnight. The next morning, I took a quarter of the dough out and had to work quickly because it warmed up in my hands.


The first couple of 1" balls were easy to roll, but the dough quickly melted in my hands and I had to wash regularly. Each quarter section of dough resulted in fifteen balls that I first rolled in granulated sugar and then icing sugar.


These are the exact same balls of dough once baked. The dough spreads so the balls must be kept far apart on the tray. I discovered that the granulated sugar melts and hardens, trapping the icing sugar on the surface. As well, the top of the cookie cracks as the dough spreads in the oven, resulting in a beautiful appearance:


The cookies are very light and I think it is due to the high liquid content. In fact, the inside looks a bit like cake, but is crispy instead of moist - I definitely recommend storing them in airtight containers between sheets of parchment paper to keep them crispy and to prevent the sugary outside from flaking off. I might reduce the brown sugar next time, but everyone who has tried the cookies like them just as they are!