Black Chocolate Cookie Recipe

I love black chocolate cookies. For one reason, the bitterness of black chocolate cookies goes well with royal icing. Another reason is I love the black colour like Oreo. I like the black colour adds some contrast and sharp looks.

 

 

Even if I like black chocolate cookies, some designs like below need soft colour of plain cookies.

Cocoa Cookie Recipe

400g plain flour
200g unsalted butter
40g black cocoa powder (*OR 40g normal cocoa powder + a bit of bamboo charcoal powder)
90g sugar
1 egg

 *Black cocoa powder usually taste less than normal cocoa powder, so if you want rich chocolate flavour, use normal cocoa powder and bamboo charcoal powder for colouring.

 

1) Sift the flour and cocoa.

2) Beat room temperature butter with a whisk until it becomes whitish, then add the sugar and mix further.

3) Add beaten egg and mix well.

4) Add flour to the mixture with a spatula.

5) Divide the dough into 4 equal parts and roll out with a rolling pin to a thickness of 5-6 mm.

6) Chill (and rest) the dough in the fridge for at least half an hour. 

7) Roll out the dough to a thickness of 4 mm and cut out the shape. Rest the cut out dough in the fridge for at least 30 minutes, or in the freezer for at least 10 minutes.)
(6 & 7 process prevents cookies from distorting or shrinking.)

8) Roll out the remaining dough to 5-6 mm and rest it in the fridge for at least half an hour before the next batch.

9) Bake in a preheated oven at 170°C for 14-18 minutes (depending on the size of cookies).*

*I like baking cookies until crunchy. (If they are plain cookies, until a bit further than golden.) I think soft and moist cookies are popular in US and Europe, but in Japan, most of us like crunchy. We also like hard, crunchy royal icing, so we never think of adding corn syrup to icing to make it soft even when it's dry.)

About baking mats
As a lot of cookie lovers already know, Silpain* enable us to bake cookies beautifully. Not only they look good but also extra fat from butter is released through the mesh and they taste better.

*Please note that Silpain and Silpat are different. Silpain is mesh that has tiny holes but Silpat doesn't have holes. Silpain is great about releasing extra fat, but you can't roll out dough on it.

How to make bumpy cookies flat
After baking, you sometimes may find cookies bumpy. If this happens, place a baking sheet on top of the cookies as soon as they come out of the oven and put something heavy such as a kettle full of water on top and leave it for a while. If the cookies are still so bumpy that it affects icing, use Microplane Zester Grater.

This is very helpful to get sharp cookie edges and adjust cookie shape and size for something you need precision, such as a gingerbread house.