Chocolate Crackle Cookies

The first time I made chocolate crackle cookies was with my friend Cecilia, who now works as a pastry assistant at Plum in Oakland. I had never heard of chocolate crackle cookies before, but when I tried our finished product, I was entranced. We made them from a recipe in a Mary Engelbreit cookbook, but when I asked Cecilia for the recipe she told me that Martha Stewart had a good one. I tried Martha's recipe, and it was pretty good (I mean, they're chocolate cookies), but it wasn't anywhere near the crackles I had made with Cecilia. I remembered using melted chocolate when I made them the first time, and Martha's recipe just called for cocoa powder. Since then I've tried many recipes for chocolate crackles, trying to recreate that crispy, powdered-sugar-dusted exterior and creamy , rich chocolate interior, all to meh results. Finally, in the place I least expected it, I found a winner. In the dessert section of The Art of Simple Food, Alice Waters admits that she's not very good at baking. Then she goes on to provide the best scone recipe ever. Similarly, it was Alice who gave me the amazing chocolate crackle recipe that I will share with you now. At first I was a bit wary of this recipe since it diverged from Cecilia's in two major ways: it used a significant amount of ground, toasted almonds, as well as bourbon. But now I realize that Alice's chocolate crackle cookie recipe is the best chocolate crackle cookie recipe ever, and therefore the best cookie recipe ever. Happy baking!

Almonds + sugar go in the food processor

One of the perks to being home for winter break is having access to all sorts of exciting kitchen tools, like the food processor, a stand mixer, and a real rolling pin instead of an empty wine bottle. I try to avoid baking in Berkeley because it often requires really precise measurements, the kind you ought to do with a kitchen scale, and tons of mixing and whisking (which I don't really like to do by hand, with my $1.50 whisk from Daiso). I made crack pie a couple months ago, and Christina Tosi's recipe literally says to combine butter and sugar "on medium-high for 2-3 minutes." Attempting to recreate a medium-high setting with my arm, it took about fifteen. The almonds give this cookie a nice crunch, and a subtly warm, nutty flavor. 

Double broiler for chocolate and butter

Glowing brandy gets added to the chocolate

Something that scared me about this recipe was the inclusion of brandy. I don't really like alcohol in my desserts, but this is brilliant. The brandy, when added to the chocolate butter mixture, gives it a glossiness and keeps the texture intact when the chocolate cools down. It also adds some depth of flavor. Brandy is a must, don't skip it! 

Assembly Line

The other brilliant thing about this recipe, besides the almonds and the brandy, is the granulated sugar. Alice tells you to roll your balls in regular sugar before the powdered sugar. What this does is 1) give your cookies a crunchy exterior and 2) create those beautiful "crackles" that give the cookie its name. Well done, Alice. Why did none of my other recipes have this?

The finished product

Chocolate Crackle Cookies

from The Art of Simple Food

Ingredients:

1 cup roasted, unsalted almonds

1/4 cup plus 2 tbsp sugar (plus more for coating)

1/2 cup flour

1/2 tsp baking powder

8 oz semi-sweet chocolate chips 

3 tbsp unsalted butter

1 1/2 tbsp brandy

2 eggs, at room temperature

powdered sugar for coating

Directions:

Chop together very fine, or pulverize in a food processor: almonds and 2 tablespoons sugar. Put them in a bowl, and sift over flour and baking powder. Mix together. 

Melt in a heat-proof bowl over simmering water: chocolate and butter. Stir in brandy. Set the mixture aside off the heat.

Whisk together eggs and 1/4 cup sugar. Continue whisking until the mixture forms a ribbon, 5 to 7 minutes. Stir in the melted chocolate and almond and flour mixture. Chill the dough in the refrigerator for 1 to 2 hours or until firm. 

Before baking, preheat the oven to 325°F. Fill a shallow bowl with granulated sugar, and another with powdered sugar. Roll the cookie dough into 1-inch balls. Roll a few at a time in the granulated sugar to coat them, then roll them in the powdered sugar. St them on parchment-lined baking sheets 1 inch apart. Bake for 12 minutes, rotating halfway through baking. When the cookies are done they will have cracks in there white shells and they will be firm on the edges, but still soft in the center. Do not overbake.