Snow Day 2 – His & Hers Chocolate Sugar Cookies

January 17, 2018

Today is day two of complete snow coverage. David and I are again housebound. Since we have leftovers from yesterday’s lunch for lunch today, I think it’s time to make a dessert. Nothing calls for chocolate more than temps in the teens and snow everywhere. Usually, I go for hot chocolate on days like this, but today I am thinking more about cookies. Still armed with my Better Homes and Gardens cookbook, I searched for something that fit with my dwindling pantry ingredients. Sugar cookies fit the bill. Not regular sugar cookies, we need chocolate sugar cookies, so I adapted the recipe to suit our chocolate cravings. This new recipe was great because I could roll out the dough and use my new cookie cutters. I bought them the last time my family was home for Christmas. I call them His and Hers cookie cutters because they are a high-heeled shoe shape and a Batman bat shape. Here’s the recipe:

His & Hers Chocolate Sugar Cookies

2/3 cup of shortening

¾ cup sugar

1 teaspoon of vanilla extract

1 large egg

4 teaspoons of whole milk

1-1/2 cups all-purpose flour

½ cup of cocoa powder (I used Hershey’s brand)

½ teaspoon of sea salt

1-1/2 teaspoons of baking powder

Here’s how I baked them:

Preheat the oven to 375^oF. Next, mix the shortening, sugar, and vanilla until nice and smooth. I used an electric hand mixer and it smelled heavenly. Next, add the egg, milk, salt, and mix until well blended. I added the salt to the wet mixture to make sure it was well blended. Next, sift in the flour, cocoa powder, and baking powder. I don’t usually sift anything, but I did today because the cocoa powder was a bit lumpy. Mix with an electric hand mixer to blend.

Next, roll out the dough to about ¼ inch thick or maybe a little thicker. My cookie cutters are quite large, so I needed a sturdy cookie to support the size. I didn’t need any flour for this part because it’s cold in my kitchen making the granite nice and chilled, so the dough didn’t stick.

Cut them out and bake them for about 6 – 8 minutes or so. Surprisingly, they didn’t spread at all so I could have put more in the baking pan. Keep an eye on them as they can go from done to burned in the blink of an eye. Mine cooked for about 7 minutes.

Let them cool completely and enjoy them with a tall glass of cold milk or a steaming hot cup of coffee. These cookies soothed my restless, housebound soul and they will soothe yours too!