Food is Love: Chocolate Crinkles

For a recent birthday party, Scott and Leslie both baked the birthday girl's favorite cookie -- chocolate crinkles. I hadn't ever tried these little wonders before. Ohmilord. So much goodness in such a little cookie.

Today, it's your turn for a double dose of wonderfulness -- the recipe and Scott's guest post. His post further explains why I call this ongoing feature, "Food is Love." Thanks, Scott!

I didn't grow up with Chocolate Crinkles. I was introduced to them by Tim's paternal grandmother. For some years, she would prepare a batch of each grandchild's "favorite" cookies around the holidays, mailing a tin to each some time between Thanksgiving and Christmas. Later, she wisely spread her effort across 12 months. Cookies were sent around birthday times instead.

While Tim likes the crinkles, they are not his "favorite." Nor were they ever. But Lucy continued sending us crinkles each year. Could it be because I told her the first time I experienced them that they were my new favorite? Tim jokingly started saying, "Now we know which one of us she likes better." (Coincidentally, our birthdays are back-to-back.) Tim shared the story of his "favorite" cookies when he spoke at Lucy's funeral.

A few years before she died, Lucy decided that she couldn't keep up with the baking any more. So she carefully prepared the applicable "favorite" recipe card for each grandchild. Now I can't remember if she mailed the Chocolate Crinkles recipe in Tim's birthday card that year -- or mine.

As with the assortment of yellowing cards I have in the recipe file written by my own grandmothers, pulling out the Crinkles card a few times a year helps me keep something going. Though, I swear my Chocolate Crinkles will never taste quite as good as Lucy's.

I wonder if a few decades from now, a great-niece or nephew of mine will say, "My Chocolate Crinkles will never taste quite as good as Uncle Scott's"?

CHOCOLATE CRINKLES
2 c. semi-sweet chocolate chips, divided
6 Tbsp. butter, softened
1 c. sugar
1-1/2 tsp. vanilla
2 eggs
1-1/2 c. flour
1-1/2 tsp. baking powder
1/4 tsp. salt
powdered sugar for coating

Preheat oven to 375 F.
Microwave 1 cup of chocolate chips for 1 minute; stir; repeat until melted and smooth; cool slightly.
Cream together butter, sugar and vanilla.
Beat melted chocolate into butter/sugar mixture.
Add eggs one at a time and beat until fully incorporated.
Fold in flour, salt and baking powder.
Stir in remaining, unmelted chocolate chips (1 c. -- or more if you have some extra and want to add them).
Shape dough into 1" balls and roll heavily in powdered sugar.
Place on greased or parchment-lined baking sheet.
Bake 10-11 minutes; cool 5 minutes on pan then remove to wire rack.
Approx. 3 dozen cookie