Chocolate Crinkle Cookies

This is how my day started…arrrrggghhhhh!  The mug fell into the kitchen sink in a domino-style tumble.  Shoved by a bully-of-a-cereal-box.

Not to worry.  That mug is easily replaceable.  And anyway, my mind is preoccupied.  The impending storm is evident in the color of the sky.  Tinged an off-yellow, the opaque sky is dull and quiet.  Gray tree trunks and limbs stand completely still against this backdrop.  I imagine them alert to what's coming. Am I a little on edge too?

The eastern half of the country is going to be under a weather seige for the next few days (the word catastrophic being used in many weather reports), and so we will be practicing how to stay at home.  I don't necessarily have a problem with this. Okay, I have no problem with this, especially since Valentine's Day is upon us too!

So, perhaps a plate of little chocolate crinkle cookies will enhance the comfy, the togetherness, the love.  I'd profile these little morsels as hit-the-spot chocolate goodness: sweet and crunchy on the outside and chewy on the inside… together with a cup of coffee or tea, just the remedy after you've cleared your driveway and sidewalk.

Chocolate Crinkle Cookies
adapted from Flo Braker's Chocolate Crackle Cookies
(recipe published in the Miami Herald on 2/21/2008, but also seen here)

Yield:  4 dozen easily; cookies freeze well

1 cup unbleached self-rising flour
1 cup granulated sugar, plus more for rolling cookies
1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder (I used Hershey's)
4 tablespoons (1/2 stick) butter (I used salted), cut into cubes
1 cup chocolate chips (I used a combo of milk and semi-sweet because that's what I had)
2 large eggs, at room temperature and slightly beaten

Directions

1.  Mix flour, sugar, cocoa, in a large bowl or the bowl of an upright mixer with a rubber spatula.

2.  Mix in the cubed butter with your hands until mixture resembles coarse meal.

3.  Stir in the chocolate chips.

4.  Gradually pour in the eggs, and using a handheld mixer (or the paddle attachment if using the upright mixer) beat at low speed until the eggs are blended into the other ingredients.

5.  Take the dough out of the bowl and wrap up completely with a piece of saran.

6.  Chill the dough in the refrigerator for an hour or longer.

7.  When ready to bake, prepare cookie sheet with parchment paper and preheat oven to 350º.

8.  Remove the chilled dough from the refrigerator and roll enough dough to make a 1-inch ball.  Then roll in granulated sugar until completely coated.  Place on cookie sheet.  No need to flatten.

9.  Bake for 11-12 minutes or until crackly on top.  They will still be a bit soft, but will firm up as they cool.