Addictive Salted Caramel-Stuffed Chocolate Cookies

If you've read this blog at all, you probably know that I belong to a group where we mail cookbooks around in a round-robin style. When I got Half Baked Harvest, I kind of skipped past all the harvesting and landed on these cookies.
Oh. My. Heck.

These are insane. They're best when slightly warm so the caramel is a little soft, but if you make them and let them cool - because eating a whole batch would be kind of crazy - you can still have that soft. center. Just pop them in the microwave for a few seconds before serving to get that soft caramel center.

I made a few other recipes from the book, but this is the one I decided to share on the blog. I don't like to share more than one recipe from a book, although most publishers are fine with up to three recipes without special permission.

This one, though, was worth saving, publishing, and making again.

Addictive Salted Caramel-Stuffed Chocolate Cookies
Adapted from Half-Baked Harvest by Tieghan Gerard

6 tablespoons (3/4 stick) unsalted butter
4 ounces bittersweet chocolate, chopped
2 cups semisweet chocolate chips
3 large eggs
1/2 cup granulated sugar
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1/2 cup plus 2 tablespoons all purpose flour
2 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder (I used black cocoa)
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon kosher salt
24 to 48 milk chocolate caramels (I used Dove candies that were available for Easter. Dark chocolate caramels would also be nice, and a little less sweet.)
Flaky sea salt, for topping

Preheat the oven to 325 degrees and line a baking sheet with parchment paper.

In a small saucepan, combine the butter, bittersweet chocolate, and chocolate chips. Cook over low heat, stirring often, until fully melted and combined. The chocolate will be thick. Remove the pan from the heat and let the chocolate cool slightly. Note: if you're comfortable melting chocolate in your microwave, you can do that here. Melt in short bursts and stir in between. 

In a small bowl, using a handheld mixer, beat the eggs and sugar together on high until light and fluffy, which should take 2-3 minutes. Add the vanilla and the melted chocolate, and beat for 1 or 2 minutes more, until well combined. Scrape down the sides of the bowl as needed. Note: I did this in my stand mixer, using the paddle. 

Add the flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, and kosher salt. Beat until fully combined and smooth, about 3 minutes. The batter should be thick but pourable - don't worry, it will turn into cookie dough. Cover the bowl and refrigerate for at least one hour, or overnight. Note: I left mine in the fridge longer, with no ill effect. You just don't want to forget it in there for too long.

Scoop out a scant 2 tablespoons of dough and place them 2 inches apart on the baking sheet. Flatten the dough into small disks, about 2 inches in diameter - you can grease your hands with a little oil if this gets messy.

Place a caramel in the center. Scoop out a rounded teaspoon of dough and flatten it into a disk. Place this disk on top of the caramel, pinching the layers of dough together.

Note: I followed the instructions for forming the cookies for the first batch I made, then changed gears and did it in a way that made more sense to me. So feel free to improvise. You want the caramel neatly enclosed by the dough, with the top a little thinner, and you want the cookie somewhat flat. It will spread a little during cooking, but its nice to give it a little help.
Bake for 10-12 minutes, just until set on the edges. Remove from the oven and sprinkle each cookie with a little flaky salt. Note: in the second batch, I added salt before baking - it seemed easier, and the salt stuck a little better.

Let cool at least 5 minutes on the baking sheet before serving, or place them on a rack to cool completely and rewarm later.

And ... here's a little tease ...

This cake is also from Half Baked Harvest. It's a three-layer chocolate cake filled with chocolate fudge that is drizzled with caramel sauce. It's frosted with caramel frosting, and then drizzled with more caramel. This is NOT an everyday cake that you'd make for a family dinner, but if you want a showstopper for a party or event, this is it.

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Chocolate Sables

Let's get this part over first. According to baking nerds on television, "sables" is not pronounced like the furry animals. It's pronounced something like "sah - blays" and probably with a slightly jaunty French accent.

Which makes sense, since this recipe comes from the book French Desserts by Hillary Davis.

This post is part of a group post organized by the newly revised Virtual Potluck and sponsored by Anolon, WÜSTHOF, Paula Deen, Microplane, Gibbs-Smith, and Nielsen-Massey, who provided products to the participating bloggers as well as items for our giveaway.

Yes, I mentioned a giveaway. It's at the bottom of this post, and there's lots of awesome stuff you could win.

If you aren't familiar with Hillary Davis, you can read about her book Cuisine Nicoise on my blot here where I made a recipe for broccoli, and her book Le French Oven where I made some yummy soup here.

But let's talk about sables. If you haven't figured it out yet, they cookies. Yup, chocolate cookies. They're lovely and crisp and not too sweet, but then they're sprinkled with sparkly sugar on top, so if you want them sweeter, you can certainly add more sugar.

I thought it was interesting that these were brushed with an eggwhite wash before sprinkling with sugar. I don't think I've ever done that with cookies. I've eggwashed bread, and it made it shiny, but it was a new idea for cookies.

I love new ideas.

This recipe called for Hershey's Special Dark Cocoa, but I didn't happen to have that. I did have three other kinds of cocoa, though, so I used black cocoa. I'm sure these will work just fine with whatever you have. I mean, there's just no way these could be bad.

The cookies were lovely with some eggnog for dessert. Microplane gave us each a cup grater and a spice grater to use in our recipes ... I used them to garnish my eggnog - a whisper of nutmeg and then a little bit of grated chocolate. Because, well ... why not?

The cup grater is particularly interesting. You can set it right on a cup or mugif you want to, but it's really nice for holding it above the mug - which you'd need to if that mug was full. The funnel shape means you can do your grating and get the ingredients right into the mug instead of spilling onto the rim or onto the counter.

ALSO, this would be really great for grating chocolate on top of cupcakes, right?

That little spice grater is ideal for nutmeg. I just love it!

Chocolate Sables

Adapted from French Desserts by Hillary Davis

2 cups all purpose flour

1/2 cup plus 2 tablespoons cocoa (the recipe called for Hershey's Special Dark, but I didn't have that, so I used black cocoa)

1/4 teaspoon salt

2 sticks unsalted butter, softened

1/4 cup confectioner's sugar

1/2 cup plus 1 tablespoon granulated sugar

1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract (I used Nielsen-Massey)

1 egg white beaten with 1 teaspoon water

Crystallized or turbinado sugar

Sift the flour and cocoa together in a mixing bowl, then add the salt and which together.

Okay, in all honesty, I just piled the flour and cocoa into a bowl and whisked. I didn't sift at all. There were a few tiny lumps in my cocoa, but they broke up easily. If your cocoa is particularly lumpy, you might want to go ahead and sift.

Oh, and I used one of my spiffy new Paula Deen mixing bowls. I love the stripes!

Beat the butter, confectioner's sugar, and granulated sugar with a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, scraping down the bowl several times. 

Add the vanilla and beat to combine.

Pour in the flour mixture and mix just until well combined.

Scoop the dough onto a large sheet of plastic wrap, form into a ball, and place another sheet of plastic wrap on top. Use the palms of your hands to flatten it, then use a rolling pin to flatten it to about 1/4 inch thick. Refrigerate for 30 minutes.

Meanwhile, heat the oven to 350 degrees and line a baking sheet with parchment paper. Of course I used my new Anolon cookie sheet. It has a nice silicone grip so it's not as hot to hang onto, but of course I used a mitt when I took it out of the oven.

Use a cookie cutter or a glass to cut out round cookies. Since the instructions didn't mention a size, I used a sort of small cutter, because I don't like giant cookies. That way, I can have just one cookie if I'm not too hungry, but two cookies isn't too much, either.

Place the cookies on the baking sheet, brush with the eggwash, and sprinkle with the sugar. Just for the fun of it, I made one batch with the eggwash and one without. The ones with the eggwash were shiny and had sort of a crackled appearance, and the ones without had a more matte finish. They tasted the same, so the difference was mostly appearance.

Bake for 13-15 minutes. The instructions say to bake until crisp, but the were soft while hot and got crisp after cooling a bit. Just make sure they're done.

Let the cookies cool a few minutes on the baking sheet, then move them to a rack to cool completely. Needless to say, I used the rack that came in the Anolon set.

I haven't used the cake pans yet or the loaf pan that came with the Anolon set yet, but I'm pretty excited about them. The surface is really slippy, so I shouldn't have any trouble with cakes sticking. I used the parchment paper on the baking sheet that this recipe called for, but I think the cookies would have been fine without them.

Besides the fun products I used in making the cookies, I got a few items that didn't quite fit this recipe. The cake knife from WÜSTHOF looks like just the right thing to slice through cake, and the triangular shape will be perfect for lifting slices of cake for serving.

And then I received both lemon and almond extract from Nielsen-Massey. 

I considered using the almond extract in the cookie recipe because almond goes well with chocolate, but then I decided to stick with the vanilla called for. I'm kind of a fiend for vanilla - I buy it in 32-ounce bottles. Yeah, I'm crazy. But that's how much I use.

Want more recipes? 

Go visit the other bloggers participating in this potluck:

• Theresa from Foodhunter's Guide made Plenty of Pears Salted Caramel Loaf Cake
• Milisa from Miss in the Kitchen made Mini Raspberry Croissants 
• Debra Clark from Bowl Me Over made  Fabulous Butter Cake
• Miranda Payne Couse  from Cookie Dough and Oven Mitt made Laughing Cow Sugar Cookies

GIVEAWAY

One giveaway winner will receive a copy of French Desserts by Hillary Davis, an Anolon Advanced Bronze 5-piece baking set, a Paula Deen 3-piece mixing bowl set, a WÜSTHOF GOURMET 6-inch Cake Knife, a Microplane Premium Classic Spice Grater and Spice Cup Grater, and Nielsen-Massey almond and lemon extracts.

A second winner will receive a copy of French Desserts by Hillary Davis.

The giveaway is open to residents of the US.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Thanks to all of our sponsors for providing products to the participating and for the items for the giveaway! For more information about our sponsors, you can follow them on social media:

Anolon and other Meyer products are sold through PotsandPans.com. Find them on Facebook and Twitter.
Anolon is on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.
Microplane is on Facebook and Twitter.
WÜSTHOF is on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.
Gibbs-Smith is the publisher of the cookbook. They are on Facebook and Twitter.
Hillary Davis is on Facebook and Twitter.
Nielsen-Massey is on Facebook and Twitter.

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Easy Peasy Three-Flavor Pinwheel Cookies #BakingwithBetty

Sometimes I love a recipe that's complicated. It might be several hours of work, many ingredients, and maybe even a bunch of gadgets, tools, bowls and appliances. The feeling of accomplishment when it's done is satisfying.

On the other hand, I also adore recipes that are easy and fun. I like the idea that I can make something quickly and it looks like I spent a lot of time on it.

This recipe is definitely easy and fun and creative. Made simple by the use of packaged cookie mix from Betty Crocker®, the result is still pretty darned impressive, with three colors in the swirl. And did I mention that it's pretty tasty, too? Yup. Tasty.

These cookies help you spread the cheer with the simple surprise of a three-color swirl that's unexpected. To add even more holiday flair, you could roll the edges of the cookies in red and/or green sugar, but I'm sure you'll agree that they're pretty great without any flourishes.

For this sponsored post, I shopped at Walmart:

I didn't realize there were sooooo many cookie mixes. I brought home the Peanut Butter Cookie Mix:

And the Sugar Cookie mix, which had directions for both drop cookies and cut-out cookies:

And then the fun started happening. Because it's always fun in my kitchen.

Three-Flavor Pinwheel Cookies

1 package Betty Crocker® Peanut Butter Cookie Mix, prepared according to package directions (requires oil, water, and egg)
1 package Betty Crocker® Sugar Cookie Mix, prepared using "cutout cookie" directions (requires butter, flour, and egg)
2 tablespoons cocoa powder

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees and line several baking sheets with parchment paper if you will be baking immediately.

After the two cookie mixes are prepared, remove about 1/3 of each dough and place that in a separate bowl along with the 2 tablespoons of cocoa powder. Mix well.

Pat each dough to form a square and stack them on top of each other. Use a rolling pin to roll the combined layered dough to form a rectangle about 13x16 inches. It doesn't need to be precise - you can eyeball it.

Starting at one of the long sides, roll up the dough jellyroll style, making a nice, tight roll. The roll should be about 2 inches in diameter, and evenly thick from end to end. If the roll is uneven or too thick, you can simply roll it on your work surface to even it out and squish and press it as needed. Part of the fun of these cookies is that they're not all the same, so you needn't take the rolling too seriously. Have fun with it.

You can refrigerate some or all of the dough to bake later, if desired. Just wrap it in plastic wrap until you're ready to make cookies.

Otherwise, cut the roll into pieces about 1/2 inch thick and place them on the prepared sheets, leaving space between them. They don't spread a lot, but they do spread a little.

Bake the cookies at 375 degrees for about 12 minutes, or until the edges of the cookies are just beginning to brown, and the bottoms are slightly browned.

If you choose to refrigerate before baking, the cookies will take about two minutes longer to bake.

Let the cookies cool on a rack before storing.

Don't they look fun? And everyone who ate them loved them. So ... what sort of creative things are you doing for the holidays? Hmmmm? Cookies, perhaps?

Want to make these cookies and save a little money? You can get a coupon here.

This is a sponsored conversation written by me on behalf of Betty Crocker. The opinions and text are all mine.

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Honey Cornmeal Cookies

If you have that person in your life who doesn't care for sweet desserts, this cookie is for them. It's as though cornbread and a cookie had a transporter accident, and this is what happened.

Take a bite of a cookie and you taste a little bit of sweetness from the honey, but then at the end the cornmeal flavor takes over. It's a complex cookie with simple ingredients.

These would be lovely with some tea. For people who like sweet desserts, offer them some jam or an extra drizzle of honey.

If you like, you could flatten the cookies instead of leaving them as mounds, and make sandwich cookies with the jam in the middle.

Honey Cornmeal Cookies
Makes 2 1/2 dozen cookies

1 stick butter
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup honey
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
1 egg
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 cup cornmeal
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt

Heat the oven to 350 degrees. Cream together the butter and the sugar and honey until light and fluffy. Add the vanilla and egg and beat until well blended.

Combine the flour, cornmeal, baking powder, and salt in a bowl.

Add the dry ingredients to the butter and sugar mixture and beat until well blended.

Use a small scoop to portion the dough onto the prepared cookie sheets. Bake at 350 degrees for about 13 minutes, until lightly browned.

Transfer the cookies to a rack to finish cooling.

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Shortbread Cookies - vegan and kosher

While the book, The Holiday Kosher Baker, is all about baking foods for Jewish holidays, the recipes are just plain good. You don't need to make them for a holiday.

No one would point to the shortbread cookies that I made and say, "Kosher Holiday!" The cookies certainly could be used for a kosher holiday, but you could serve them pretty much any time.

Unlike many shortbread recipes, this one doesn't include butter - it uses margarine instead.

While I don't personally have issues with using dairy products, there are plenty of people who have to avoid dairy, so I like to have a few recipes designed for using margarine. Substituting margarine for butter doesn't always work as you'd expect, particularly in baking recipes.

I used cookie stamps to decorate these cookies, and I really like the result - both the decoration and the flavor of the cookies. I'm not going to admit how many of them I ate.

During baking, the cookies didn't spread a lot, and they held their shape and kept the designs that were embossed on top. That's really important if you're using cookie cutters or stamps - otherwise you can end up with strange blobs instead of distinct designs.

A bonus is that the recipe is really simple. There are only three ingredients, so if you happen to keep these on hand, you'd be ready to make these cookies pretty much any time.

However, they need some freezer time to firm up, so you do need to plan at least a little bit in advance.

BUT!!!

You can make the dough well in advance and freeze it, so you'll be ready to bake emergency cookies when you need them. What? You don't have cookie emergencies? Well, then, you can bake just a few at a time, if that's what you want to do.

Shortbread Cookies
Adapted from The Holiday Kosher Baker by Paula Shoyer

1 cup confectioners' sugar
2 cups plus 2 teaspoons all purpose flour (plus more as needed)
1 cup (2 sticks) margarine, cut into chunks

Note: this recipe uses a food processor to do the mixing, which makes it really easy. But I don't see any reason why you couldn't use a stand mixer or electric hand mixer instead. Just make sure you start on low speed so you don't send sugar and flour flying all over your kitchen.

Put the sugar and flour in your food processor fitted with the metal blade. Process for about 10 seconds to blend.

Add the margarine and process until it comes together as a dough.

Remove the dough from the food processor and divide it in half. You can flatten it to disk and wrap in plastic wrap, or place it in a zip-top bags and flatten the pieces to a square shape to fit the bag.

Freeze overnight, or you can leave the dough there several days, until you're in the mood to bake.

When you're ready to bake, heat the oven to 400 degrees and line several baking sheets with parchment paper. Remove the dough from the freezer and let it thaw just until it's soft enough to roll.

Flour your work surface and the top of the dough and roll to 1/4 inch thick. The book suggests rolling the dough between sheets of parchment paper, but I had no problem rolling it without the parchment - do whatever works for you.

Check out my review of the cookie stamps here.

Cut with cookie cutters as desired. I cut mine into rounds and then used Nordicware Geo Cookie Stamps to press a design into each cookie.

Bake 10-12 minutes, or until the cookies are lightly browned on the bottom and you can barely see browning on the edges.

Slide the parchment onto a rack to allow the cookies to cool.

Continue making cookies until all the dough is used.

I received the book from the publisher and the cookie stamps from Nordicware. Check out a review of the book here.

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Confetti Cookies

Since I don't have any of those small people scurrying underfoot here, I don't buy a whole lot of cereals marketed to little folks. But that doesn't mean I can't have fun with those cereals in other ways.

This time my victim was Fruity Pebbles.

Oh, sure, I could have used Cocoa Pebbles. Chocolate is always good, right?

But I wanted to have fun with the colors. Yup, Fruity Pebbles deliver on the bright and crazy colors, and I thought they'd be perfect for cookies. I used them in the dough as well as a coating for the cookies.

These cookies are crisp on the outside and softer inside when they're first baked. They become harder as they are stored.

Confetti Cookies

1 1/4 cups all purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup sugar
6 tablespoons unsalted butter, softened
1 egg
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 cups Fruity Pebbles, divided

Heat the oven to 350 degrees and like a baking sheet (or two, if you like) with parchment paper.

Combine the flour, baking powder, and salt in a bowl, and whisk or stir to combine. Set aside.

In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, or in a bowl using an electric hand mixer, beat the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add the egg and vanilla extract and beat until combined.

Add the flour and mix until barely combined, then add 1 cup of the Fruity Pebbles and stir until fully mixed.

Use a small scoop or a spoon to portion the cookies as desired. Roll each portion to form a ball, then roll each ball in the remaining pebbles, to coat the cookies with the cereal.

Place the finished balls on the prepared baking sheet, leaving space between the cookies.

Bake at 350 degrees until the cookies are lightly browned on the bottom and you can see a little browning along the edges, about 15 minutes.

Remove the baked cookies from the pan and let them cool completely on a rack.

This post was sponsored by Post Foods. For more info, you can find Pebbles online:

Twitter: @GoTeamFruity, @GoTeamCocoa
Facebook: @Pebbles Cereal
Instagram: @TeamPebbles
Website: http://www.postfoods.com/our-brands/pebbles/

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Pecan Praline Almond Cookies

These may be the absolutely best cookies I've ever made. I'm serious about that. Oh, I love chocolate chip cookies and peanut butter cookies and other cookies just fine. But these cookies are different. The texture is at the same time light, yet crumbly. Crunchy yet delicate.

The flavor is buttery with a whisper of almond. The praline pecan is the perfect topper adding an extra nut flavor that compliments the almond, along with the crunchy sweetness of the praline cookie.

These remind me a little bit of almond cookies that I used to get from a Chinese take-out restaurant, but these have a little more chew and they're not as sandy.

They're really great. You should try them.

The Praline Pecans I used were from Truly Good Foods supplied to me via 37 Cooks for a blogging challenge.

Pecan Praline Almond Cookies

2 cups all purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 sticks unsalted butter at room temperature
1 1/4 cups sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/4 teaspoon almond extract
2 tablespoons vegetable oil
Praline Pecans (one to top each cookie)

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees and line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper.

Combine the flour, baking soda, and salt in a small bowl and set aside.

Beat the butter, sugar, vanilla extract, and almond at medium speed in a medium bowl with an electric mixer or a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment. Beat for a few minutes, until the mixture is fluffy.

Drizzle the oil in while continuing to beat the butter mixer at low speed.

Add the flour mixture in several additions, beating just enough to blend it well.

Use a small scoop to form balls of dough. Try for about 24 cookies, but more or less is fine - it just depends on how large you want the cookies to be. They will spread a little and puff up as they bake.

Place the balls on the baking sheets, leaving room between them to spread. Flatten the cookies with the palm of your hand, then place one praline pecan on top of each cookie.

Bake at 350 degrees until the cookies are lightly browned, 13-17 minutes, depending on the size of the cookies. If you're baking 2 sheets of cookies at a time, you'll probably want to swap them around after about 10 minutes of baking.

Remove the cookies from the sheets and let them cool completely on a rack. Continue forming and baking cookies until all the dough is used.

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Brownie Krinkle Cookies

A while back, I reviewed a cookbook called Cookie Love over on Munching on Books, but I usually don't think cookbook reviews are really complete until I've written about at least one of the recipes. People who want cookbooks are interested in the recipes, not the plot, right?

When I saw the Brownie Krinkles, I knew I had to try them. They look a lot like cookies I've made for many years, but the recipe is different. And these promised a soft center, which really interested me. As much as I like a crisp cookie, I also like soft, chewy, and fudgy cookies.

These delivered on the promise - they're deeply chocolate-flavored and not overly sweet. They're soft in the center. They're pretty marvelous.

This certainly isn't the most unusual cookie in the book, but it's the one that called to me the loudest. It was a good choice for a review, that's for sure.

The one downside of making this recipe is the number of bowls it uses. But ... it's not like you're putting things in bowls just to hold them. You might reduce the number of bowls needed if you cracked the eggs straight into the batter, but that's something I never do - there's nothing worse than having to fish an errant eggshell out of a batter. So I always crack eggs into another container just to be safe.

Brownie Krinkles
Adapted from Cookie Love by Mindy Segal

4 ounces unsweetened chocolate, chopped
4 eggs, at room temperature
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 3/4 cups all purpose flour
1/4 cup Dutch processed cocoa powder
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon sea salt flakes
1/2 cup canola or sunflower oil
1 3/4 cups sugar
For coating:
1 cups powdered sugar

Melt the chocolate in a double boiler (or in a bowl over a pot of simmering water), stirring occasionally. Keep warm.

Crack the eggs into a bowl and add the vanilla.

In a separate bowl, combine the flour, cocoa, baking powder, and both salts.

In the bowl of your stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, mix the oil and sugar on low speed for one minute. Add the melted chocolate and mix for another 30 seconds.

Scrape down the sides of the bowl as needed, throughout the mixing process.

Add the eggs one at a time (along with the vanilla) while mixing at medium speed. Wait until one is incorporated before adding the next.

Scrape the bottom and sides of the bowl, then mix again on medium speed for another 30 seconds.

Add the dry ingredients all at once, and mix until the dough comes together, but it's still shaggy rather than smooth. Do not overmix.

With a plastic bench scraper or spatula, continue mixing the dough by hand, until it comes together.

Cover the bowl or transfer the dough to a more convenient container and refrigerate at least 30 minutes or overnight.

When you're ready to bake, heat the oven to 350 degrees and line a few baking sheets with parchment paper.

Put the powdered sugar in a bowl. You'll be rolling the cookies around in it, so make sure it's larger enough for that.

Use a small disher - about 1 1/2 tablespoons - to portion the dough. Roll them into balls, then roll them around in the powdered sugar to coat them completely.

Arrange the cookies on the prepared baking sheets. Add another pinch or two of powdered sugar to the tops of the cookies.

Bake for 8 minutes, then rotate the pans and bake for another 3 or 4 minutes, until the cookies have formed a crinkled surface and the cookies are set in the middle. For the best result, they should be set on the edges and the tops should no longer look raw - overbaked cookies won't be fudgy, which is the point of these.

Remove the cookies from the oven and let them cool on the pan for a few minutes before moving them to a rack to cool completely.

Continue portioning, rolling, and baking until you've used all of the dough - or if you prefer, you could make a small batch and store the unbaked dough in the refrigerator to be baked another day.

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