Chocolate & Warm Winter Spice Butter Crisps

This thin, crisp, melt-in-your-mouth chocolate cookie falls into the “highly addictive and you’ve been warned” category.

On the sixth day of Christmas … my true love gave to me … Chocolate & Warm Winter Spice Butter Crisps.

Just as no Christmas cookie collection is complete without at least one ginger spice cookie, there must also be at least one chocolate cookie in the mix.

For this year’s Twelve Days of Christmas Cookies: Silver Bells collection, there are two chocolate cookies. They are similar in construction (at least for the shortbread component) but the spicing and shaping is different for each.

For the Chocolate Toasted Coconut Bars, the shortbread dough is spread into a baking pan and the depth is close to ½-inch.

For Chocolate & Warm Winter Spice Butter Crisps, you want to roll the dough very thinly and cut with a simple cookie cutter of your choice. I specify a simple cookie cutter, because the dough is fragile and moist, and you may have difficulty with more elaborately shaped cutters.

Although the photo above shows the cookies on a silicon liner, I actually switched to parchment paper after the first batch. The cookies baked way too fast on the silicon.

Chocolate & Warm Winter Spice Butter Crisps

This cookie falls into the “highly addictive and you’ve been warned” category. Rolled very thin, they are crisp and melt-in-your-mouth at the same time.  A wonderful cookie for reflecting with afternoon tea or coffee.

Baking Notes

For best results, cookies should be COLD when they go into the oven. Otherwise, they may spread too much. Always give cookies plenty of space to spread regardless, at least an inch between cookies.

Baking times are APPROXIMATE. Correct baking times are critical to the success of your cookies. Test your oven temperature.  Your oven may be running hot or cold. Bake only a few cookies on your first run, and watch the timing closely.

Dark pans bake faster than light pans or air-sandwiched pans. Silicon mat-lined pans bake faster than parchment-lined pans. Cookies that are rolled to 1/8-inch thick bake faster than cookies rolled to ¼-inch thick.  There are so many variables. Do test a few cookies first. It may save an entire batch later.

2 cups (9 ounces) King Arthur unbleached, all-purpose flour
½ cup (2½ ounces) white rice flour (2½ ounces)
½ cup premium-quality, natural process, unsweetened cocoa powder

1½ cups (3 sticks) unsalted butter, cool room temperature 
1 cup sugar
2 teaspoon Warm Winter Spice Powder (recipe below)
2 teaspoons vanilla
½ teaspoon salt

Decoration
fine, clear sanding sugar or luster

1. In a medium mixing bowl, sift together the flour, rice flour, and cocoa powder. Reserve.
2. Using a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cream the butter and sugar together until light and creamy, about 3 minutes.
3. Add Warm Winter Spice Powder, vanilla, and salt, and continue beating until incorporated.
4. Add the flour mixture and mix very briefly, only until incorporated.
5. Divide the dough into 3 equal portions, and flatten each portion to a ½-inch thick disk on a sheet of plastic wrap. Seal the plastic wrap around each portion of dough and refrigerate for at least 2 hours, or overnight. (The sealed dough can be refrigerated for 2-3 days if necessary.)
6. With a cloth-covered rolling pin, roll the dough out thinly (1/4-inch or less) on a floured pastry cloth. Cut out shapes with cookie cutters.
7. Arrange on a parchment-lined baking sheet, decorate with clear sanding sugar if desired, and bake at 350° for about 8-9 minutes. Watch closely to prevent cookies from over-browning. It is difficult to tell when these cookies are done because color is not a cue.
8. Remove from the oven and cool on wire racks.
9. When completely cool, store in air-tight cookie tins in a cool, dry location.
10. These cookies improve with age and will keep, if stored properly, for many weeks. You can also freeze them.

Makes about 4-5 dozen cookies, depending on the size of the cutter.

Warm Winter Spice Powder

I love this blend of spices and use it frequently in the winter months, especially around the holidays. It’s great with anything chocolate. Try it in Molten Chocolate Cake, Drinking Chocolate, and chocolate cookies.

3 tablespoons ground coriander
3 tablespoons ground cardamom
1 tablespoon ground cinnamon
1½ tablespoon ground cloves
1½ tablespoon ground white pepper

1. In a small mixing bowl, whisk together the ground spices.
2. Store in an airtight container, in a cool, dry location.

Makes a heaping ½ cup.

There’s More

Follow along as we bake this year’s cookie collection, and check out our past two collections:

• Season 3: Twelve Days of Christmas Cookies: Silver Bells
• Season 2: Twelve Days of Christmas Cookies: Starry Night
• Season 1: Twelve Days of Christmas Cookies: Deck the Halls

Plus

If you like these chocolate cookies, you may also like:

• Mexican Hearts of Fire Cookies
• Once in a Chocolate Spice Moon Cookies

Copyright 2010-2018 Susan S. Bradley. All Rights Reserved.