In a Nutshell: Snowcap Cookies
Now, what’s better than a chocolate cookie? That’s right, one covered in SNOW! (We realize this is a bit late seasonally, but in honor of the driest ski-week in a while, we present our own homemade snow.)
Recipe (Inspired by Chef John):
Notes
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Difficulty: Medium
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Length: 30 minutes prep + 1 hour setting = around 1.5 hours
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Keep in mind: You literally cannot pile on too much powdered sugar.
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Why we made it: They looked cool
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Why you should make it: Crispy, chewy, melt-in-your-mouth chocolate-y goodness all at once.
Ingredients
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3 ounces semisweet chocolate, broken in small pieces, melted over hot water (this also works with chocolate chips)
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⅜ cup flour
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⅙ cup cocoa powder
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¾ tsp baking powder
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⅛ tsp salt
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¼ cup butter (softened at room temp)
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½ cup packed brown sugar
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1 large egg
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1 cup powdered sugar, or as needed (overestimate on this one, because you need plenty of space to roll around in. It’s okay–you can always reuse the leftovers)
Equipment
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Double boiler (small pot and big bowl) to melt chocolate
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Whisk/spatula to make the batter-dough (you can also do this in a standing mixer with the paddle attachment)
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Large-ish bowl (to hold your snowpile to roll your cookies in)
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Baking tray lined with parchment paper
Melt your chocolate over a bowl of simmering water.
While it’s melting, let’s get started on the batter! It’s a pretty standard cookie-making procedure. Cream together your butter and brown sugar the mixture comes together in a smooth paste. Add your eggs, mixing them in one at a time, making sure the first egg is completely incorporated before adding the second (it might look ugly. That’s okay.) Stir in your chocolate, then add your dry ingredients until everything comes together into a dough. Chill in the fridge for at least an hour.
After your dough has set, scoop your cookies out (we like using ice cream scoops or two teaspoons) into little balls.
Roll your cookie balls generously in powdered sugar. You might want to roll them in a bowl instead of on a flat surface so that they stick to more sugar (ours were lacking a bit in this department). This is your snow!
Make a conscious effort to suffocate them in your powdered sugar (try to make it so that you can’t see any of the chocolate and they look like white fairy angels of some sort).
Pop them into your preheated oven at 350 degrees F and bake them for around 12 minutes.
As you can see, once they bake, the cookies will start to slightly crack on the outside and give them the “snowcap” look.
Bite into these delicious and wonderfully textured cookies. They’re moist and rich but not overwhelming at all.
And that’s snowcap cookies, in a nutshell!
Next up:
“I suspect music is auditory cheesecake, an exquisite confection crafted to tickle the sensitive spots of… our mental faculties.”
-Steven Pinker, psychologist, linguist, author
Fred Chang (12) is the Managing Editor of the TALON Yearbook and co-creator of In a Nutshell. Her positions on yearbook were reporter, Copy Editor, and...
Priscilla Pan is the features editor for the Winged Post and co-creator of In a Nutshell. She is a senior and has been part of the journalism program for...