Winner of Tres Leches Cookie Contest!

Thanks to everyone who submitted cookie recipes! We've had a lot of fun making all the recipes and giving them away to our neighbors and friends as our holiday gift! (Plus it saved us all those extra pounds of eating them ourselves.) Not to worry we ate more than our fair share and I'll have to work out from now to the next Millennium to take off the sugar pounds packed on but as it was for a good cause...

Plus, I now have some way yummy recipes to turn to when I want something different than my rocking standby of  chocolate chip cookies!

We used a highly sophisticated grading system: a scale of 1 to 5 with my 4 year old skewing the results every step of the way by giving almost everyone 5's written on good old fashioned paper. I was nearly ready to throw out the highest and lowest scores for each but with only 4 scores to start with that wouldn't work. In the event of a tie we were prepared to put names in a hat and draw. Another highly sophisticated and random way to select a winner when the judges are stumped.  

So enough chatter already, you're thinking, tell us who won  so the winner's book can get shipped tomorrow and arrive before Santa!

The Winner Is . . . Kbrebes!

Her Chocolate Crackle Top with Mint Cookies were amazing! The recipe will be posted here once I have her permission. (I mean, I think it's okay, but I don't want to get sued over copyright laws or something.)

CHOCOLATE CRACKLE TOP COOKIE WITH MINT

Ingredients:

1-1/2 cups flour
1-1/2 cups sugar
1-1/2 teaspoons baking powder
3/4 teaspoon salt
6 Tablespoons unsalted butter, melted and cooled to room temperature
3/4 cup cocoa powder, Ghiradelli preferred
3 large eggs, at room temperature
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup semisweet chocolate chips (may use miniature chips)
3/4 cup powdered confectioners' sugar, for coating cookies
2 boxes Necco Thin Mints (WalMart 99 cents last year)(I couldn't find these so use what you can find that works!)
Preparation:

In a large bowl, combine flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt until evenly mixed. Set aside.

Scrape the melted butter into a smaller bowl with a spatula and add the cocoa powder. Stir until combined and no lumps remain. Mix vanilla extract with eggs, then whisk into cocoa butter mixture.

Add wet mixture to dry flour mixture and mix thoroughly by hand with a rubber spatula. It may seem as if you need more liquid, but do not add any. Just keep folding and pressing until the mixture comes together. It will eventually reach the consistency of stiff brownie batter. Fold in chocolate chips. Refrigerate dough for 30 minutes to firm up.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Line two baking sheets with silpat baking liners or parchment paper. (If you do not line the baking sheets, be sure to lightly grease them.)

Pour confectioners' powdered sugar into a small bowl. Scoop dough by teaspoons or tablespoons (your preference), roll into balls, and drop into powdered sugar, rolling around to cover completely. Place on prepared baking sheets 1-1/2 inches apart.

Bake cookies for 12 to 15 minutes (longer for larger balls). The cookies will spread, puff a bit, and form cracks. The longer you cook them, the more crispy they will become. As soon as they come out of the oven, press a Thin Mint on top of each cookie. Let cool 10 minutes on the cookie sheets before using a spatula to remove to racks and cool completely. Store in a covered container.

Please e-mail me at the address above or through AI so I can get it shipped Friday. That's when I'm doing the final run to the post office.

Congratulations!

PS. Thanks to all of you who have become a follower of my blog. I'm looking forward to doing a happy dance when I reach 50! Maybe I'll do a giveaway. Hmmm...