Oh yummy cookies!
My family has been making this chocolate cookie for I don't even know how many years. Normally we make them (decorated with frosting holly berries and leaves) as part of the cookie platters we take to all the Christmas parties we go to, but the Fiancee requested that I make them to take to his families Memorial Day cook out. I believe the recipe is from a Betty Crocker Cookbook but I am not sure, since my copy of it is scribbled on the back side of a envelope. I made a double batch since they always seem to disappear the second I set them down.
Chocolate Drop Cookies
(makes approx 1 1/2 dozen cookies)
1 cup sugar
1/2 cup margarine, softened
1 tsp vanilla
1 egg
2-1.0 oz squares unsweetened bakers chocolate, melted and allowed to cool
1 cup flour
1/2 tsp salt
~ Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
~ Mix first 5 ingredients together till well combined. Sift flour and salt in and stir only till they are all combined.
~ With 1 rounded teaspoon dough make round ball and place 2" apart on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper. Flatten balls with a flat glass bottom that has been lightly greased and then dipped in sugar. (you really only need to grease for the 1st one after that the sugar should stick to the glass from the last cookie.)
~ Bake for 8 min till top is set and no longer looks wet. Cool on baking sheet for 5 more min then transfer to a baking rack to cool completely. 
Because this was a summer party, I topped a third of each of them with a simple orange or mint glaze. It's a basic powdered sugar glaze that I changed up a little by adding orange zest and juice to the orange and some fresh mint and green coloring to the mint. I loved how you could see flecks of mint and rind in the glaze when it was done. The mint recipe I am still working on because it came out to bland but I will post the orange one. 
Orange Glaze
1/3 cup butter or margarine
2 cup powdered sugar
1 teaspoon grated orange peel, peel only no pith
2-3 tbsp orange juice
~ Melt butter in saucepan over low heat. Add orange zest when butter is almost melted.
~ Remove from heat and whisk in powdered sugar.
~ Stir in orange juice 1 tbsp at a time till it is as thick as you want it. Remember as it cools it thickens, but you don't want it too runny or it will slide off your cookie before it can set. (Look at the mint glazed cookie pic to see this in action, lol)
~ Dip cookies and allow to dry for about 1 - 1 1/2 hrs on bakers rack over parchment or wax paper.
~ This amount of glaze will cover a double batch of cookies or a large bundt cake.
Posted in: In The Kitchen on Sunday, June 1, 2008 at 10:19 PM
