Chocolate Roll Out Cookies

By chelyc13

Ingredients

• 2 1/2 cups all purpose flour
• 1/4 cup unsweet cocoa powder
• 1/2 teas baking powder
• 1/2 teas salt
• 1/4 teas baking soda
• 1/2 teas ground cinnamon
• 3 oz bittersweet chocolate, chopped
• 1 cup butter, room temp.
• 1 1/3 cups sugar
• 1 large egg
• 1/2 teas vanilla extract
• Decorations
• Royal Icing

Preparation

Step 1

Sift first 5 ingredients and cinnamon. If desired, into medium bowl. Stir chocolate in metal bowl set over saucepan of simmering water until melted and smooth. Set aside. using electric mixer, beat butter in large bowl at medium speed until smooth and creamy, about 2 minutes. Add sugar and beat until mix is pale and fluffy, ,about 2 minutes. Add egg; beat until well blended, about 1 minutes. Reduce speed to low and beat in vanilla and chocolate. Add flour mixture and beat on low speed just to blend. Gather dough into ball; divide in half. Form each half into ball and flatten into disk. Wrap disks separately in plastic and chill until firm, at least 4 hours.

Do ahead: Can be made 2 days ahead. keep chilled. Let stand at room temp 30 minutes before rolling out.

Position rack in center of oven; preheat to 350. Line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper, then follow steps at right.

1. Roll out dough working with 1 disk at a time, roll out dough between 2 sheets of waxed paper to 1/8 inch thickness for large cookies. Using waxed paper prevents you from adding too much flour, which will make the cookies tough.

2. Cut out cookies using decorative cookie cutters, cut out cookies. Cold odugh is much easier to work with. If it gets warm as you're cutting out the cookies, place the dough -- waxed paper and all -- in the freezer for about 5 minutes.

3. Transfer cookies to baking sheets. use an offset spatula to peel away the excess dough and transffer the cookies to parchment lined baking sheets, spacing 1 inch apart. Gather scraps, roll out dough, and cut more cookies, repeating until all dough is used. If not icing cookies, decorate with sprinkles or other sugar toppings, if desired.

4. Bake, cool, and decorate bake 1 sheet at a time until cookies are firm on top and slightly darker around edges, about 9 minutes for smaller cookies and up to 12 minutes for large cookies. Line baking sheets with fresh parchment as needed. Cool completely on rack. Decorate cookies, following tips on page 97. Cookies can be made 4 days ahead. Store between sheets of waxed paper in airtight containers.