Chocolate Sugar Cookie Cut-Outs

Happy Valentine's Day!  I wanted to make something different than the usual vanilla sugar cookies this year, so I chose these chocolate ones.  I've made them before and have been very happy with them.  The dough takes a bit to come together, but then you have a wonderful, firm dough that rolls out well (with the help of flour and wax paper) and keeps its shape after baking, but most importantly, tastes awesome.  Since these don't spread during baking, you can space them close together on the cookie sheet.  I sandwiched them together with pink frosting, but you could leave them plain, or just frost singles. 

I was going to give a lot of these away, so I increased the recipe by 50% in order to have enough.  It was SO much dough it was overflowing my KitchenAid.  This made almost 80 cookies..... and I didn't get started till later in the day, so it was a very long night by the time I had finished baking and frosting them all!  Whew!  Once I got a system down for the rolling and baking though, things flowed pretty smoothly, and then I just sat at a stool at the kitchen counter with some good music while I frosted them all.

I really like this recipe for chocolate sugar cookies- I'm sticking with this one.  :)  I do increase the cocoa powder and decrease the flour a bit- I'll post my way below, and I'll also post the original recipe, not the one that is increased by 50%.  :)  Another thing I do is just use softened butter- the original recipe has you cutting in cold butter, but I think that is totally unnecessary.  They turn out wonderfully using softened butter.

Chocolate Sugar Cookie Cut-Outs

adapted from Allrecipes

2 cups confectioners' (powdered) sugar

3/4 cup Dutch process cocoa powder

3 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 cups unsalted butter, softened to room temperature
1 1/2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
2 eggs

1.  Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).

2.  In a large bowl, stir together the confectioners' sugar, cocoa, flour and salt until well blended. In a stand mixer, cream the butter. Add eggs and vanilla, and mix in the dry ingredients until a stiff dough forms. It may take a minute to come together.

3.  On a lightly floured surface (I roll between sheets of wax paper, using flour if needed), roll out dough to 1/4 inch thickness and cut into desired shapes using cookie cutters. If the dough is too sticky, chill for a little bit. Place cookies onto an ungreased baking sheet.

4.  Bake for 7 to 10 minutes in the preheated oven, or until the surface appears dry. Allow cookies to cool for a couple minutes on the baking sheet before removing to wire racks to cool completely.
 
5.  Frost, if desired, or make into sandwich cookies with your choice of frosting.
 

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