I am christening my Martha Stewart Cookies book. Can you believe that I haven't made a recipe from it yet? I've been so distracted with cake making lately (and successful cakes they were!) that all my cookie recipes have gotten pushed aside. Well.... NO MORE! Out they come with a vengeance. I've been eyeing a few cookie recipes for a while and I've got to get my hands into them. A cookie rut can be hard to break and I've definitely got my favourites. You can guess... it's not hard... Chocolate Chip, Oatmeal, Straight up Chocolate and lastly a peanut butter concoction that I've been doing for a lot of years. I need some new inspiration, to break me of the 'same-old' habit. At one point a few months ago I had made chocolate chip cookies for so many weeks in a row that my daughter asked me to 'Please make something else'. That's pretty sad.


So, I have eagerly been searching through some blogs - joy the baker is a good one - and, of course, I've been enjoying the Cookie Book. I have an aversion to anything 'Martha' but this book looked so good in the store that I had to walk away with it, consoling myself that probably the only real involvement Martha had in the book was putting her name on it. But, I still have to live with the fact that I'm making this person ridiculously rich... Ach! My conscience!!! Why did it have to be her cookie book - ah well... I have some 'Carrot Cake Cookies with Cream Cheese filling' and some sweet looking 'dulce de leche' cookies on the horizon.


For now I will appease myself with these chocolate cracklers. The picture was just too alluring. Couldn't resist... didn't even try. The result was quite amazing. It has a texture that is very close to a meringue, just a little more cakey. Gooey, squidgy and gorgeous - and very chocolatey!!

Chocolate Crackles (M. S. 'Cookies')
Should make about 5 dozen (just a little under for me but awfully darn close)

8 oz (1 cup) bittersweet chocolate, finely chopped
1 1/4 cups all purpose flour (unbleached)
1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp coarse salt
1/2 cup unsalted butter
1 1/2 cups packed brown sugar
2 lg eggs
1 tsp vanilla
1/3 cup whole milk
1 cup granulated sugar
1 cup icing sugar


In a bowl, over simmering water, melt the chocolate. Set aside to cool.

Sift together, flour, cocoa, baking powder and salt.

Beat butter and brown sugar together until pale and fluffy. Mix in eggs, vanilla and melted chocolate. Mix well.
In small batches mix in flour and alternate with milk - begin and end with the flour.

Divide the dough into 4 equal pieces, wrap them and refridgerate for about 2 hrs.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F

Divide pieces into 1 inch balls. Roll in granulated sugar and then icing sugar. Space 2 inches apart on a lined cookie sheet (parchment or baking mat)


Bake about 14 minutes or until the surface cracks (rotate sheets half way through)
Cool on wire racks and store.

As a p.s. to this recipe. I have experienced a huge tragedy recently. My laptop died. It was a Macbook pro from 2003! To say that it had a long life is an understatement and to be quite honest, I'm sure that if we took it in we could have something soldered for about $90 and be back in business. The truth is though that it's time to say goodbye to it. We knew it was coming but just wanted to put off the inevitable as long as possible. I feel almost as attached to my Mac pro as I did to my first gen. green mac mini - ahhhh, my sweet baby!!!

I will be blogging from Derek's computer for a while but will let you all know when my new mac lands in my hands!

To my dear old laptop... this plate of cookies and glass of milk are for you. RIP xoxo