ABC - Tender Loving Crackle Cookies

I love crackle cookies and when I saw Christina Marsigliese's TLC cookies blog post, I knew I had to pick them for our ABC group's June Challenge. I've made this type of cookies before, using a Nick Malgieri recipe which were awesome, so I knew the bar was set high. Christina's recipe did not disappoint.

I didn't change much in the recipe except I added 1 tsp of instant espresso powder for a little mocha flavor (and that's coming from a girl who doesn't even drink or like coffee) and I used 60% Ghirardelli chocolate chips.

Fudgy + chewy = yummy!

And pretty too!

If you'd like to join the ABC bakers in their monthly baking adventures, please go to the ABC blog for more information.


The dough was a breeze to make, especially using a food processor. I changed the order of things a bit in order to make it work in the food processor, like chopping the chocolate first and then adding the dry ingredients, etc. The dough went into the fridge to rest while I went shopping.

I must have shaped my cookies really small because I ended with 22 cookies, instead of 15-16. Some of my close friends will be proud of me that I was able to put my OCD aside and NOT weigh each cookie. As some other ABC bakers mentioned, the dough became soft really quickly, after just a little bit of handling. I rolled them in powdered sugar and put them in the freezer for 10 min, with baking sheet and all.

Liberally coated chocolate cookie balls

After 8 min in the oven, I had glorious cookies. I couldn't wait to taste them but I did anyway. They smelled amazing. After 30 min, I couldn't wait any longer and took a bit into a somewhat lukewarm cookie. They were deliciously fudgy and chewy with great chocolate flavor. I give these a big Thumbs Up and would definitely bake them again. Hubby didn't get to try these so no rating from him this time.

22 delicious chocolate morsels. Bon Appetit!

Final thoughts/tips

Other flavor profiles I'd consider next time:

• Mint (using LorAnn peppermint oil)
• Orange (using orange zest)

Changes I'd make next time:

• A little less sugar in the dough as I found them a tad on the sweet side.
• Use half white sugar and half brown sugar.
• Use bread flour or half AP/half bread flour to give the cookies a bit more structure. They flattened somewhat after cooling. I would have liked them to be a bit thicker.

Don't forget to check out the other ABC bakers' results.