Unsweetened Chocolate Kerfuffle

Recipe: Chocolate-Espresso Snow Caps

Source: http://www.marthastewart.com/342387/chocolate-espresso-snowcaps

Time: 1 hour 45 minutes

Ease: 5

Taste: 5

Leftover Value: 5

Down the Drain or Keep in the Strainer: Down the Drain

When it rains it pours.  I love idioms, don't you?  Yet again, I have a Down the Drain rated recipe for you.  Even so, I must confess that I have made this recipe twice and that I have yet to throw it away.

Don't judge me.

What that says is, while this is a Down the Drain recipe for me, it still is worth trying because perhaps you might find yourself on the fence about it, as I am, or better yet, you may actually have a taste for it.

I get a lot of Canvas-On-Demand offers in my inbox.  Whenever I get them, I always think about having pictures from one of my blog posts printed on a 30 x 20  canvas to display in my kitchen or living room.  Pictures like this one are ones I often toy with printing.  Then I think about what my Hubby would say when he sees that I spent $30 on printing something of that sort.

Actually, it's not so much what he would say that worries me.  He wouldn't be mad that I'd spent money on it.  But he would definitely, definitely make fun of me.

While getting the dry ingredients sifted together, 4 ounces of bitter or semi-sweet chocolate need to be melted.  Do not do what I did the second time I made these.  I had two squares of bitter sweet chocolate and two squares of unsweetened chocolate.  I thought, 'What the hey, they are both chocolate.  I'm not running out and buying two squares of bittersweet chocolate just for this'.

While it didn't horribly affect the flavor, it gave them a bitter quality that, to me, only tastes good if warmed up and paired with a honkin' scoop of vanilla ice cream.

Yes, I said honkin'.

Deal with it.

So far, aside from my chocolate ignorance, this recipe was alright.  Not too difficult; a little sifting, a little blending, and life is good.

Here's another one of those pictures I'd like to hang on my wall.

This is the point where the recipe became trying...of my patience.  After mixing together the wet ingredients, the dry ingredients, and the chocolate, the batter needed to be wrapped in plastic and put in the freezer for about 45 minutes.

If you have read any of my posts about marinating foods, you know how I can't stand recipes that make me wait.

However, there certainly are foods worth waiting for.

This one is not.

After the batter has firmed up in the freezer, the next direction is to take it out and begin shaping the dough into 1-inch balls.

I forgot the second time around just how messy that eventually becomes.

Strike two.

You'll find that this recipe does not make many cookies.  The recipe says it yields 18, I can squeeze out around 25, but they are tiny.  I can't imagine with making 18 that they are much larger.

After forming the 1-inch balls, the cookie dough is then rolled in powdered sugar.

That part is fun, and a lot less dirty on your hands.

I like that.

They do look pretty when they first come out, but beware.  If you didn't roll the cookies in enough powdered sugar the sugar will start to melt and no longer be bright white but a wet brown color (some of the above cookies have the start of this going on them).

If done the right way (no unsweetend chocolate used) they do taste good, just as one would expect a chocolate cookie to taste, but they have their flaws, which certainly exceed their strengths.

Flaws:

Messy to make
Freezer wait time
Small batch
Small cookies

Final flaw:
I've had better.

That pretty much sums up why they are a Down the Drain recipe for me.  I had a student once who brought in these kind of cookies for a class party.  They were triple the size of mine, melted in your mouth, and probably consisted of the same amount of effort as these.

Those would certainly earn a Keep in the Strainer rating.