TWD: Midnight Crackles

For our New Year's edition of Tuesdays with Dorie, the indefatigable Laurie of Slush and Jules of Someone’s In the Kitchen chose Midnight Crackle cookies. I know I was supposed to make the Midnight Crackles to enjoy on New Year's Eve. However, as is my wont, I was in bed well before midnight on said evening. Staying up until midnight on New Year's Eve (or any evening, really) lost its appeal for me when I was about 24. However, somewhere nearby was a fireworks show on the dot of midnight, so I was awake anyway. Bah humbug. I'm a load of fun, aren't I?

It turns out that Midnight Crackles are really perfect on January 1, after a dinner of filets mignons and a great Zinfandel (Seghesio Rockpile Zinfandel '08). Full disclosure/shameless plug: my cousins make this wine, it is most assuredly not pink, and in my former life, I worked at the winery. I miss it every day. Also, they make fantastic wines and you should try them.

The cookie dough itself is very simple - melt some bittersweet chocolate with butter and brown sugar, then mix with eggs, flour, cocoa, et cetera. There was some discussion on P&Q about how long to refrigerate the dough before shaping balls and baking them; Dorie mandates a minimum one hour, but it seems that any longer than that and the dough becomes difficult to pry apart and shape. Actually, I think about half an hour in the fridge would have been perfect.

While making the cookies, I thought to myself, "Hey now...didn't I just make these a few weeks ago?" These appear to be very similar to my go-to cookie exchange cookie, Martha Stewart's Chocolate Crackle Cookies, except that Dorie's don't require a roll in sugar before baking. Interesting. Very interesting.

We ate some freshly cooled, and more the next day. These cookies are intensely chocolatey, but not too sweet. You'd think this would have kept my kids from trying to make off with handfuls of them, but they loved them. As for me, on the second day I found them a bit dry, which could have come from overbaking (although I don't think I did). Having made dozens of Martha's moist, chewy crackles, I was a little underwhelmed by these cookies, but I'm interested to see how everyone else liked them, and maybe figure out what I could have improved.

Next week: Margo of Effort to Deliciousness chose Chocolate Fluff Filled Madeleines on pages 170 and 171 of Baking: From My Home to Yours by Dorie Greenspan

Last week: Chocolate Amaretti Torte