I'd like to offer up a link to the basic recipe. Please note that I made substitutions, as I always do in just about every recipe I make. I will post my amended recipe at the bottom. In the meantime, here's the link:
http://homecooking.about.com/od/dessertrecipes/r/blcookie91.htm
So, the first thing I'm going to do is get out all my ingredients, and make sure that I have my measuring cups and spoons, as well as a clean mixing bowl, whisk, and scraper.
Next, I'm going to start adding the wet ingredients and sugar together. I know that lots of people have very specific instructions about how and when to put ingredients in. I rarely find that that's necessary, and I'm in a such a hurry that I rarely take that time. In this case, it didn't prove to be an issue. So put the eggs, sugar, fat (butter, vegetable oil, or EVCO), and vanilla into your mixer and get it mixing on medium. Substitution: I did not add butter. I used extra-virgin coconut oil. I have done this with many sweet recipes and have enjoyed the result. EVCO stays pretty soft at room temperature (will turn to oil consistency at 76 degrees F). It adds a very slight coconut flavor as well. If you decide you'd like to use EVCO in this or other recipes, the exchange is 1:1. Here's what it will look like once you've mixed it well:
Next, I work on the other dry ingredients. I put flour in the bottom, then cocoa. I like to use a large measuring cup like this so I don't have to dirty lots of small measuring cups when I'm adding one ingredient to another. Finish out with salt and baking powder. Substitution: This probably needs a separate blog post, but I don't buy baking powder as a single ingredient. Baking powder can be easily put together using baking soda and cream of tartar. Cream of tartar comes from tartaric acid, an organic acid found in various things, specifically grapes. Wine and vinegar, because they are made from grapes, contain tartaric acid. Tartaric acid reacts with a base (baking soda) to create leavening. So if you're ever stuck without baking powder or even cream of tartar, you can probably get away using a small quantity of baking soda and vinegar as well. In the meantime, I use baking soda and cream of tartar at a ratio of 2:1; I would probably do the same with baking soda and vinegar. For the purposes of this recipe, that would be 1 tsp of baking soda to 1/2 tsp cream of tartar.
Then, I stir it up with a fork. Substitution: I did not add the chocolate chips to this recipe. I like these cookies to be consistently smooth, so I didn't want the texture of the chocolate chips. And I don't need the added calories, either. If you decide to forgo the chocolate chips, cut the salt required in half, from 3/4 tsp to 3/8. Otherwise, the cookies have a saltier kick than you might prefer.
Gradually mix the dry ingredients into the wet. The recipe suggests you fold this in by hand using a scraper, but I'm just not going to do that. I'll save that kind of care for meringue. However, even if you use a mixer, this is a case where you don't want to go too quickly. As always, I'm in a big hurry, so I don't even slow down or stop my mixer. I just keep it at speed level three. If you don't want dry mix all over you and your countertop, add about 1/4-1/2 cup of dry mix at a time. You might want to take the time to stop periodically and scrape the sides. I have a powerful mixer, so I didn't in this case.
The recipe suggests that you refrigerate the dough for 30 minutes. I decided that I was going to scoop it out and chill the dough balls, instead of freezing all the dough together. I used a small Pampered-Chef "ice cream" scoop and put the balls on wax paper on top of a cooling rack. In retrospect, I think I'd chill it all together. The balls were less round once I'd scooped and chilled them. If they'd been a little softer for having scooped them right before putting them in the sugar, I believe they'd have retained their shape better. No matter, they turned out round and beautiful anyway.
While you're waiting for the dough to chill, take a moment to clean up a bit. Wash your mixing bowl, whisk, and scraper; put away your ingredients. Also, prepare your powdered sugar. The recipe calls for 3/4 cup powdered sugar, and I used much less. I also added red sanding sugar because it's approaching Christmas and I like festive cookies. I think you could also add green and it would add a nice effect. I think I put about 1/2 cup of powdered sugar and 1/4 cup sanding sugar in the bowl, but only used maybe 1/2-2/3 of that. Granted, I didn't put powder on the outside of all the cookies, to respect the wishes of some in this house who don't like sugar on the outside of cookies. This is all to say if you follow the recipe, you'll probably end up wasting some sugar at the end.
I had more cookies than I have cookie sheets I like to use, so I rolled some of them in the powdered sugar and put them back on the wax paper and cooling rack I used to chill them.
As the recipe says, bake at 350 for 12-15 minutes. I use stoneware baking sheets, so it was 15 minutes for me the first time (while the stones were warming up) and 13 minutes the second time (since they were already warm). Here's how they look, fresh from the oven.
The red sanding sugar didn't show up very well in that picture, so I took another one to show the colors. Doesn't it look yummy? I mean, delicious?
Because I am diet conscious, I will include my estimate of the nutrition information of this recipe (per cookie):
68 calories, 2.3 g fat, 1.9 g sat fat, 13.7 mg cholesterol, 50.4 mg sodium, 39 mg potassium, 11.2 total carbs, 0.5 g dietary fiber, 7.6 g sugars, 1.2 g protein
As promised, here is my amended recipe. I have also amended the order of the items to reflect in which order I used them:
Wet:
3 eggs
6 tablespoons (3/8 cup) extra-virgin coconut oil
1.5 cups granulated sugar
1 tsp vanilla
Dry:
1.5 cups all-purpose flour
3/4 cup cocoa powder
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp cream of tartar
3/8 tsp salt
Powdered sugar mix:
1/2 cup powdered sugar
1/4 cup sanding sugar
Instructions: Beat the "wet" ingredients on low-medium for a couple minutes. Mix dry ingredients together. Add dry ingredients to wet 1/4-1/2 cup at a time until well-mixed. Will look like a thick brownie batter. Chill dough for 30 minutes. Put powdered sugar mix into a bowl. Scoop dough into balls and drop them into the powdered sugar mix, taking care to cover it completely. Place on a sprayed or greased cookie sheet. Bake at 350 for 12-15 minutes. Makes about four dozen cookies.
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