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Chocolate Cut-Out Cookies

By Manali Singh

Dec 14, 2014, Updated May 07, 2023

Soft Chocolate Cut-Out Cookies, perfect for your cookie decoration!

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So every year during the holidays I get into the mood of making and decorating sugar cookies. I am not a passionate cookie decorator, honestly I feel lazy to make the whole royal icing and store it but when I sit down to decorate, I enjoy it a lot, like a lot. I have made these sugar cut out cookie for India’s Republic Day and also did an eggless version with eggless royal icing for Easter this year. But other than that I hardly decorate them because for me if I am decorating cookies, then I will go all out and make royal icing and do all the complicated stuff possible (well at least I try to, whether I succeed or not is another story!).

I don’t like the taste of sugar cookies, I mean they are ok but far from being my favorites. So this time around I thought of making chocolate cut out cookies for decoration. I used the same sugar cookie recipe that I had used before and just replaced 3/4 cup of flour with good quality cocoa powder. The result? very very chocolaty cookies which according to my husband taste like an Oreo and a brownie!  In short much better than regular sugar cookie. I baked these for 11-12 minutes because these were pretty big cookies. The more you bake them, the crispier and sturdier they will get. I have to mention here that regular sugar cookies baked for the same amount of time are much more sturdier than chocolate sugar cookies. You have to allow these chocolate ones to cool down for sometime before even touching them else they break easily. I broke quite a few and hence sharing this with everyone.

I was able to get 16 large cookies out of this dough. You can get more or less depending on the size of your cookie cutter.

Some points for cut-out cookies

* I don’t use baking powder or baking soda in my cut-out cookies. I just don’t see any use, especially when we are trying to prevent the spreading. There’s no difference in taste with or without leavening agent.

* You can flavor the cookie dough any which way you like. You can use lemon zest, orange zest in the dough or even use different extracts.

* Chilling the dough is mandatory. It really helps to make sure that cookies so not spread much in the oven.

* Dip your cookie cutter in flour before cutting cookies each time.

* It’s best to make the cookies a day in advance before you plan to decorate them. Like let them cool at room temperature overnight and decorate the next day.

And lastly, I am sorry for much cookie overdose on my blog these days. You see I can’t help it! It’s like I see cookies everywhere and I don’t feel like posting anything else these days [other than other desserts of course]. So other recipes will be back on the blog soon, till them you will have to deal with cookies and more cookies!

Chocolate Cut Out Cookies

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By Manali Singh

Servings: 16 large cookies

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Soft Chocolate Cut-Out Cookies, perfect for your cookie decoration!

Ingredients 

1x2x3x

• ▢ 2 cup all purpose flour
• ▢ ¾ cup cocoa powder unsweetened
• ▢ 1.25 cups granulated white sugar
• ▢ 1 cup unsalted butter room temperature
• ▢ ½ teaspoon salt
• ▢ 1 egg at room temperature
• ▢ 1.5 teaspoon vanilla extract

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Instructions 

• In a bowl sift together all purpose flour, unsweetened cocoa powder and salt. Set aside.
• In the steel bowl of your stand mixer fitted with paddle attachment or using your hand mixer beat together butter and sugar till smooth and creamy, around 2 minutes.
• Add in the egg, vanilla extract and mix till combined.
• Now add the flour mix in 3 parts, mixing well after each addition.
• You will know the dough is done when it starts sticking to the paddle attachment.
• Remove dough and place it in a cling sheet.
• Wrap and refrigerate for 2 hours or overnight.
• Once chilled, roll the dough to 1/4 inch thickness.
• Cut out cookies using your cookie cutters of your choice. Repeat till entire dough is finished.
• Arrange all the cookies in a baking sheet lined with parchment paper, leaving 1-2 inch space between them.
• Place the baking tray in the refrigerator for 1 hour.
• Preheat oven to 350 F degrees.
• Take out the tray from the refrigerator and bake at 350 F degrees for 9-11 minutes. The time will vary depending on the size of the cookies. My cookies were huge so I baked them for 11-12 minutes.
• Take out of the oven and let them cool down in the baking tray. They are very soft and will break if you try to transfer them on to a wire rack after 5 minutes or so.
• Once they have cooled down considerably, transfer on to a wire rack to cool completely.

Nutrition

Calories: 233kcal, Carbohydrates: 29g, Protein: 2g, Fat: 12g, Saturated Fat: 7g, Cholesterol: 40mg, Sodium: 79mg, Potassium: 85mg, Fiber: 1g, Sugar: 15g, Vitamin A: 370IU, Calcium: 12mg, Iron: 1.3mg

Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.

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Chocolate Cut-Out Cookies