Receta Chocolate-Strawberry Thumbprint Cookies: Fussy but Fearless
I’ve got good news! My one and only food allergy seems to have been chucked into the gutter like an empty purse. I’ve been allergic to fussy cookies for as long as I’ve been baking. Cookies with frosting give me hives. Sprinkles or lacy details make my throat constrict tighter than a skeeter’s ass in a nose dive. Food dyes make me nauseous (and worried about stains to my tea towels). Please don’t get me started on cookies with flowers or any kind of lettering. My doctor says I could go into anaphylactic shock if I even come in contact with such a cookie. Naturally all types of animal-shaped cookie cutters are banned from my house. I’d hate to know what a pink and white shortbread penguin with Red Hots for eyeballs might do to my ability to have children.
While other cooks merrily roll, sprinkle and frost (while making cute cooing sounds) I find myself cowering in the corner suffering through horrifying hallucinations of sticky counters lined in neat piles of cookies tied up in pretty bows.
I know it’s not the same as frosted cookies, but I’m still proud of myself. It makes me wonder what might be next. Would gingerbread hoot owls with candy corn beaks be hoping for too large a miracle? GREG
I found 3/4-inch balls to be too tedious to make. I rolled the dough into1-inch balls that weighed about 10 grams each. I got 24 cookies. There was no need to adjust the cooking time, 15 minutes in a convection oven was perfect.
Ingredients
- 3/4 cup all-purpose flour
- ¼ cup unsweetened Dutch-process cocoa
- ¼ teaspoon kosher salt
- 2 ounce semisweet chocolate, chopped
- ½ cup (1 stick) unsalted butter (at room temperature )
- ¼ cup plus 6 ½ teaspoons granulated sugar (divided)
- 1 large egg yolk
- ½ teaspoon pure vanilla extract
- 4 ounce cream cheese (at room temperature )
- 2 tablespoon confectioners' sugar
- 5-6 fresh strawberries (washed, stemmed and finely diced)
Directions
Sift flour, cocoa, and salt into a bowl; set aside. Melt chocolate in a heatproof bowl set over a pan of simmering water, stirring until smooth; set aside to cool.
Put butter and ¼ cup granulated sugar into the bowl of a mixer fitted with the paddle attachment; mix on medium speed until pale and fluffy. Mix in yolk, vanilla, and chocolate. Reduce speed to low. Mix in flour mixture until just combined. Refrigerate, covered, 1 hour.
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Put 6 teaspoons granulated sugar into a small bowl. Form dough into 3/4-inch balls; roll in sugar to coat. Space 1 inch apart on baking sheets lined with parchment. Press center of each ball with your thumb. Bake 10 minutes. Press centers again with end of a wooden spoon, making 3/4-inch indentations. Bake until slightly cracked and set, about 5 minutes more. Cool completely on racks. Unfilled cookies can be stored in airtight containers up to 3 days.
Stir cream cheese and confectioners’ sugar in a small bowl. Toss berries with remaining ½ teaspoon granulated sugar in another bowl. Spoon cream cheese mixture into center of cookies; top with sugared berries, dividing evenly.