Chocolate Cut-out Cookies and Darth Vader

Fitness Update:  So ever since I did my post on exercising and losing weight, I have been trying different free youtube fitness workouts.  Now, I require them to be a full workout and something I can do without much thinking.  Fitness Blender definitely fits the bill.  I love their very down to earth manner.  They have a great website that you can put in how many minutes you want to work out, what part of your body or type of workout, how many calories you want to burn, and how difficult the workout.  I like the calorie graph they provide throughout the workout, the fact they don’t use music at all, and it is actually a workout.  Youtube has many other fitness programs on there of course… but I just didn’t think they were very hard, or I simply didn’t enjoy watching a woman in a bikini working out for 40 minutes.  Call me crazy.

So in my all or nothing routine – I have been experience a whole NEW set of delayed onset muscle soreness (DOMS) thanks to Fitness Blender.  Well, at least I know it is working 🙂  Some of my favorite workouts that they have are:

Day 1 through 5 Fitness Blender Workout Challenge
Best Butt Workout
Tabata Workout
Insane HIIT Challenge
Cardio Workout
Ladder Workout

The only disadvantage is that they have weights and I don’t.  Well, I do.  I have a set of 3’s and 6’s.  But they have a really cool set of weights that allows you to change weights quickly from 3 to 24 pounds.  They cost $150 at Amazon.  Ouch.  Well, they will be going on the Christmas list!

Recipe:  Well now that we’ve had our workout talk, it’s time to make some cookies!  These are chocolate cut-out cookies and a definitely favorite of my chocolate loving hubby and kids.  Instead of the standard sugar cookie, this makes chocolate.  In fact, the recipe is very close to the sugar cookie recipe I use for fancy cut-out cookies.  What could be better than that?  Plus hey the holidays are right around the corner and I think this would be a great variation on the same old sugar cookie.  The decorations are endless- you could use sprinkles, sparkles, royal icing, etc.  The cookie can be made darker along with the frosting by adding black dye.

There are two ways you can frost these cookies.  You can use royal icing and pipe the icing.  Royal icing can be made dark by combining cocoa powder and a little water, and then mixing this into the icing.  Or use black food coloring.  OR, if you ran out of meringue powder like I did, make chocolate frosting!  It pipes great and tastes delicious.  This recipe is below.  My original royal icing recipe can be found here.

Note on icing:  if I am simply piping cookie outlines, then I cut the icing/frosting recipe to 25%.  So, if the original recipe uses 4 sticks of butter, I use 1 stick of butter and of course reduce the rest of the recipe accordingly.  If I am going to frost or ice the entire cookie, I keep the recipe as is.

Batman Photobomb!

Chocolate Cut-Out Cookies
yield about 24 – 3″ cookies

2 and 1/2 cups (12.5 ounces) all-purpose flour
1/2 cup cocoa powder (natural or dutch processed; I used Bensdorp Dutch Process)
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 sticks (1 cups) unsalted butter, softened
1 cup (7 ounces) sugar
1 egg
1 tsp. vanilla

1.  Whisk Together the flour, cocoa powder and salt.  If you only have salted butter, simply leave out the salt.
2.  Cream the butter and sugar together on medium high until light and fluffy – about 3 minutes.
3.  Add egg.  Scrape.  Add vanilla.  Beat to incorporate. Scrape the bowl.
4.  Slowly add the dry flour mixture a little at a time.  Stir or have the mixer on low until just combined.
5.  Divide your dough into two discs.  Wrap in plastic wrap and store in the fridge for 2 hours or up to 24 hours.
6.  Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Roll dough to desired thickness.  I use about 1/4″.
7.  Cut out using cutters.  Instead of flour, I used cocoa powder to keep the surface and cookie cutters from getting sticky.  I used my small spatula to lift the cookie and place it on the cookie sheet covered in parchment or silicone.
8.  Bake cookies for about 9 minutes.  They should be dry and spring back a little when pressed.  It is harder for me to tell if chocolate cookies are done since they don’t brown.  But, if I’m not sure, I poke the center cookie gently and it should spring back a little.
9.  Cool completely on a wire rack.  Eat or continue to frost:

Chocolate Frosting for Cakes or Cookies

4 ounces unsweetened chocolate (or 1 ounce if outlining)
1 lb. powdered sugar (or 1/4 pound if outlining)
1/2 cup butter, softened (or 2 tablespoons if outlining)
2 tsp. vanilla (1/2 tsp.)
1/3 cup milk (start with 1 Tb. and work up)

1.  Put the chocolate into a great big microwave safe bowl.  Microwave for about 90 seconds.
2.  Add the sugar, butter and vanilla.  Stir all that in.
3.  Slowly add the milk a little at a time.  The frosting will seem dull and gross at first, but after some stirring it becomes beautiful and shiny and yummy.

Frosting Recipe from Kraft
Chocolate cookie recipe same as my sugar cookie recipe – just omit the leavener