Champagne and Chocolate Party

Last night was my Champagne and Chocolate Party with the book club girls and we had a great time. Everyone brought a bottle of bubbly as well as some type of chocolate dish. We had chocolate covered strawberries/apricots, cupcakes, cookies and of course champagne. I ended up making these amazing cookies called chocolate crinkles and thought I would share the recipe. Here you go:

Chocolate Crinkles

Ingredients:

4 tablespoons (56 grams) unsalted butter

8 ounces (230 grams) semisweet or bittersweet chocolate, coarsely chopped

1/2 cup (100 grams) granulated white sugar

2 large eggs

2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract

1 1/2 cups (195 grams) all-purpose flour

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon baking powder

Topping:

1 cup (110 grams) confectioners (powdered or icing) sugar, sifted

Directions:

In a heatproof bowl, placed over a saucepan of simmering water, melt the chocolate and butter. Remove from heat and let cool to room temperature.

In the bowl of your electric mixer, fitted with the paddle attachment (or with a hand mixer), beat the eggs and sugar until thick, pale, and fluffy –about 3 to 5 minutes. When you slowly raise the beaters the batter will fall back into the bowl in slow ribbons. Then beat in the vanilla extract. Add the cooled chocolate mixture and beat until incorporated.

In a separate bowl whisk together the flour, salt, and baking powder. Add dry ingredients to the chocolate mixture, stirring just until incorporated. Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate until firm enough to shape into balls (several hours or even overnight).

Preheat oven to 325 degrees F (165 degrees C) and place rack in center of oven. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper.

Place the sifted confectioner sugar into a shallow bowl. First, form the chilled dough into 1 inch (2.5 cm) balls, and then roll each ball in the sugar. Make sure each ball is completely coated, with no chocolate showing through. Place the sugar-covered balls on the prepared baking sheet, spacing about 2 inches (5 cm) apart.

Bake cookies for about 8 to10 minutes or just until the edges are slightly firm but the centers are still soft. For moist chewy cookies do not over bake. Over baking these cookies will cause them to be dry. 

Remove from oven and place on a wire rack to cool. These cookies are best eaten the day they are baked.

Makes about 3 dozen cookies. 

These are perfect year round cookies and some people may even call them mini cakes, enjoy!