CAPTAIN COOK HOTEL GUERNSEY

Ingredients:

2 cups all-purpose flour
1 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
2 cups granulated white sugar
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup vegetable oil
4 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 teaspoon mint extract
1/2 cup confectioners' sugar

Directions:

1. In a medium bowl, mix together cocoa, white sugar, and vegetable oil. Beat in eggs one at a time, then stir in the vanilla and mint. Combine the flour, baking powder, and salt; stir into the cocoa mixture. Cover dough, and chill for at least 2 hours.
2. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Line cookie sheets with parchment paper. Roll dough into one inch balls. Coat each ball in confectioners' sugar before placing onto prepared cookie sheets.
3. Bake in preheated oven for 10 to 12 minutes.


Hint: I found it was really helpful to make one perfect 1 1/2 inch ball and then place it into my tablespoon to see how it compared to the measure. Then making the rest of the balls are a lot easier. The size of them needs to be consistent for the baking time to work, or some might turn out hard(er). For coating them in powdered sugar I got a round tupperwear tub and filled it with an inch or so of powdered sugar. Before each ball is coated, use a fork or something to fluff up the powdered sugar -- it has a tendency to get compressed.. Then when you have a ball formed, drop it into the open tupperwear. Then hold the tupperwear in one hand (with your wrist facing the ceiling) and just spin it around in a circle. The centrifugal force of you spinning the container will force the ball along the round shape of the container, therefore maintaining the shape in addition to coating the ball in sugar. This whole song and dance is necessary because you can't hold the dough in your hand for very long. Why? The melting temperature of chocolate is LOWER than our body temperature and so chocolate-based goodies melt in your hand (a-la M&Ms commercial). So it's a good idea to handle the dough with your hands as little as possible.

Once the balls are coated fully in sugar, place 12 per sheet and bake in preheated oven for 10 to 12 minutes. I would take them out at 12 minutes, even if they don't look done. Let them sit on the cooking sheet for 2-3 minutes, and then transfer to a wire cooling sheet, or anything that is not a hot metal surface.

Lemon Sugar Crisps (frustrating as hell to make)
The trick is in the cookie cutting.

3/4 vegetable shortening
1 t pure vanilla extract
1/2 C sugar
2 C flour
1/2 t baking powder
1/4 t salt
1/4 C lemon juice
Powdered sugar for dusting

Mix the sugar and lemon for about a minute. Mix in the shortening until fluffy-like. Add the vanilla and lemon and run the mixer while slowly sifting in the flour, baking powder and salt. Dough should be a wee bit crumbly and difficult to work with. Such is life.

Grab a roll of wax paper, sandwich a lump of dough in between two pieces and roll out fairly thin disks of dough. Too thin and it'll be impossible to work with. Too thick and it'll loose it's texture after baking. Around 1/4 inch is good. Layer the disks of dough and wax paper on a cookie sheet and freeze for at least a half hour.

Heat oven to 325. Take out one frozen disk of dough and the cookie sheet from the freezer. Use the cookie sheet as a work surface to keep the dough chilled as long as possible. Frozen dough is easier to work with. Cut up dough, reroll and refreeze scraps. Bake cookies five to ten minutes depending on thickness. We have a convection oven and 1/4 inch cookies baked in about five minutes.

These cookies are great for ADD chefs like me. Since they bake so fast you can run around being distracted in between batches while the dough is hardening in the freezer. They can be frustrating since the dough is very crumbly and you're working with fairly thin sheets of it. However, according to Andy and Billy, they're very much work it!