Chocolate Crackle Cookies

I have a chef in training! My youngest daughter Ellie (7) loves to help in the kitchen. Of course I have encouraged her with an extension of my cookbook addiction. She has a good start. So far she has 4 cookbooks that cater to children cooking in the kitchen. She REALLY wanted to make these chocolate crackle cookies so we started them yesterday and finished them tonight. Freezer space around here is pretty limited, so instead of popping the dough in the freezer for the allotted time, we chilled them overnight. This recipe needs some tweaking. The chilled dough was still pretty soft and we were having a hard time getting it to come out of the scoop. I used a #60 scoop and got 34 cookies out of this batch. The chocolate flavor was amazing and the cookies were pillow soft. Ellie is so proud of her creation. She had so much fun rolling the dough in the powdered sugar and knocking off the extra powdered sugar using a sieve. She can't wait for school tomorrow so she can share some with her bus driver.

Chocolate Crackle Cookies

2 oz unsweetened chocolate

2 eggs, room temperature

2/3 C sugar

1/4 C vegetable oil

1 tsp baking powder

1 tsp vanilla

1/4 tsp cinnamon

1/2 C whole wheat flour

1/2 C AP flour

Place chocolate in a small microwave-safe bowl. Microwave on 70% power for 1 minute. Stir and continue heating in 15 second increments until chocolate is completely melted and smooth. Let stand until cool. Scrape into mixer bowl. Add eggs (if they are not room temperature they will harden the chocolate), sugar, oil, baking powder, vanilla and cinnamon. Beat at medium speed until combined. Slowly add the flours, continuing to beat until a soft dough forms. You will need to scrape the sides of the bowl periodically. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and place in the freezer 30-60 minutes or until the dough is easy to shape. Pour a cup or so of powdered sugar into a small shallow bowl (feel free to use more, you can reuse any remaining powdered sugar). Portion out dough into even sizes and roll each portion into balls (this is where the small scoop came in handy!) Roll the dough balls in the powdered sugar and knock any excess off. Place balls 1 inch apart on greased or lined cookie sheets. Bake at 375* for 8-10 minutes until edges are set and tops are dry. Cool on pan for a couple of minutes and transfer to a wire rack.