Cocoa Drops

Yesterday afternoon, I sat on my dining room floor for about 30 minutes, looking through my vast cookbook collection for a good basic chocolate cookie recipe. I finally found a cookbook, aptly titled, "The Cookie Book" that was published in 1941 for the Culinary Arts Institute. It had 250 cookie recipes!  While looking through the cookbook, I found recipes such as "thrift" cookies (made with dry cookie or cake crumbs), "foundation" drop cookies (because it has three different variations), "crockets" (made with egg whites, mace, nuts and raisins) and "riches" (which have tons of butter). I had "Chef" Dominic anxiously waiting in the kitchen for me, so I knew I had better find one soon!!! Towards about the middle of the cookbook, I found six chocolate cookie recipes in a row. I finally settled on "cocoa drops" since I had all the ingredients on hand. I made a few adaptions here and there from the original recipe, one being I didn't add nuts. The first sheet of cookies looked like this.
 

I "taste tested" one and thought they were pretty good, but since they didn't spread too much, for the next sheet of cookies that went in, I used the bottom of a glass dipped in white sugar and pressed them down a little. When I showed the finished product to Dominic and asked him if he wanted one, he told me, "put some frosting on it!"  Once I did and also added some sprinkles, he ate two!!  If you want to get even more "gourmet," just gently push a lollipop stick about two-thirds of the way into a cookie right when they come out of the oven and then gently remove to a wire rack to continue cooling.  I actually had one of the cookies on a "stick" as I was writing up this blog post!

 

 Ingredients

1/2 cup unsalted butter, softened
2/3 cup light brown sugar
1 large egg
1/2 cup milk
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 cups white flour
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
6 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa (for baking)
1 tablespoon white sugar (if desired)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees and lightly grease a cookie sheet with non-stick spray. In large bowl, put the butter and the light brown sugar and mix well with large spoon.  When well combined, add the egg, milk, vanilla, flour, salt, baking powder and cocoa and combine well.  Roll into balls with the palms of your hands a little smaller than a ping pong ball and put on the cookie sheet. If you like smaller cookies, bake as is. If you want them slightly bigger, then dip the bottom of a glass into the tablespoon of sugar first and then press down gently on the top of each cookie. Bake for about 12 minutes or until the cookies look done in the middle.  Remove to wire rack immediately to let them cool. When cooled, add frosting and sprinkles, if desired! Makes 2 1/2 dozen.