You Want Me to Cook?: Wilton’s Chocolate Roll-Out Cookies

Recipe modified by You Want Me to Cook? – May 19, 2012

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Wilton’s Chocolate Roll-Out Cookie recipe located on their website.

As I am baking and decorating my way through my Wilton Class Books, I needed a good cut out cookie recipe. Actually, I needed a good CHOCOLATE cut-out cookie recipe. Oddly enough, I didn’t have any in my archive of recipes, so I took the suggestion of the book (Class #1 – Decorating Basics) and went on their website for their cookie recipe.

They are basic roll-out cookies.

Yep, kinda boring without any decorating, but I’ll get to that in a future post.

There is no photo of these cookies on their site, so I can only go based on what I see in the book. Although my cookies aren’t as “smooth” on top – and I wish I could figure out how to do that – they look very similar.

Just take my word for it. Please?

Assessment:

for more details about what my ratings mean, go to Gretchen’s Rating System

Mess: SIGH – I was shocked that the prep, including the chocolate, went without incident. However, you are going to need about a billion cookie sheets if you’re making big cookies, like me, and even more counter space to cool them off.

Start-to-Finish Time: A COUPLE OF HOURS – Don’t fret… this includes an hour worth of chilling the dough, but you still have to figure that into the total recipe time. At least you can clean off some more counter space while it is relaxing in the refrigerator.

Prep Work: ALL FINGERS STILL HERE – You do have to melt the chocolate, but that could easily be rolled into the recipe. Everything else, including measuring out the chocolate, is mix and go.

Ease of Recipe: THE BASICS – I always have issues rolling out and cutting cookie dough. In my Wilton classes, I have learned how to roll dough/fondant/gum paste out better, but I’m much more adept at the fondant and gum paste part. I also came up with a system to get the cookies from the counter to the pan then to the rack by using parchment paper for the transfer, but be patient while you’re working the details out. Start small and practice a little before really getting started on the cookies.

Overall: YUMMY – I initially gave this a SORRY HONEY NO LEFTOVERS, but I decided to rethink it for two reasons: (1) I made the “plain” roll-out cookie and those tasted 10-times better. Not that these tasted bad… I’m not saying that at all. What I am saying is that I would have eaten the others without any frosting in a heartbeat. I probably wouldn’t say the same about these. Then (2) I was cleaning out cookie storage and found a couple of these left. There would have to be none leftover for it to earn the higher rating.

Recipe Information:

I am not a doctor or dietician. I make my nutritional assessments with the aid of Spark Recipes. I run the original recipe and my altered recipe through their calorie counter and then compute the differences I find. My numbers are to be used as a guideline. Anyone who is under dietary medical supervision should follow the advice of their medical professional if their opinion differs from mine. PLEASE!

Makes 2-1/2 dozen cookies

The estimate of how many cookies it makes really depends on how large of cookies you are cutting out. I was making 6-inchers, so I didn’t get nearly that many cookies. There wasn’t any timing information, so here’s how my timing worked out:

Prep: 19 minutes
Hands-on Time: 15 minutes (doesn’t include cutting out cookies)
Chill Time: 1 hour
Bake Time: 10 minutes/batch (I had 4 batches)
Total Time: 2 hours 5 minutes

It didn’t take me long to cut out my large cookies and then I would re-roll and cut out the next batch while one was baking. So basically, there’s a lot of overlapping time.

There wasn’t any nutritional information included with the recipe, so I ran the ingredients through my nutritional calculating tool and got the following:

Calories 141.6
Total Fat 5.8 g
Saturated Fat 3.6 g
Cholesterol 22.8 mg
Sodium 62.8 mg
Total Carbohydrate 22.0 g
Dietary Fiber 0.4 g
Sugars 13.0 g
Protein 1.9 g

That’s a single cookie. Hmmmm… I’m not sure I’m happy with that many calories, fat and cholesterol in one tiny treat WITHOUT frosting. Oh well, it doesn’t hurt to splurge every once in a while!

Ingredients:

Changes denoted by red text

3/4 cup butter ~~or margarine~~ softened

1 cup granulated sugar

2 eggs

1 teaspoon ~~Madagascar~~ Pure Vanilla Extract

3 squares (3 ounces) unsweetened chocolate, melted and cooled

3 cups all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon baking powder

Ingredient Notes:

Butter/Margarine – I’m not a big fan of margarine. Unless a recipe specifically says I HAVE to use margarine, I always go with the butter-option.

Vanilla Extract – I’m sure that the best vanilla comes from Madagascar. However, I scanned the shelves in my grocery store and couldn’t find any that marked it from that location. Wilton had a link to buy it from their website, but even their product didn’t specify it was from Madagascar. Since I have a ridiculous amount of vanilla in my pantry, I wasn’t going to buy anything new if I didn’t have to.

Equipment Needed:

Small Bowl

(2) Spoons – mixing

Stand Mixer

Plastic Scraper

Large Bowl

Plastic Wrap

Parchment Paper

Rolling Pin

4-6” Round Cookie Cutters

Flexible Spatula

Cooling Racks

Equipment Notes:

Stand Mixer – Wilton’s recipe simply states to beat the butter and sugar with a mixer in a large bowl. I already have a stand mixer (a good investment if you like to bake a lot), so I went with that.

Parchment Paper – I use Parchment Paper in a lot of places. I use it when I’m rolling out the dough to keep it from sticking to the counter thereby keeping the mess to a minimum. I also use it to line the baking sheets, which keeps them cleaner and allows me to move the cookies from place to place a lot easier.

Directions:

(1) Preheat oven to 375°F and then prep the ingredients.

Ordinarily, I have you prep the ingredients first, but since it shouldn’t take too long I decided to preheat the oven before prep. Even if it is done preheating before you’re done, you’ll have a nice hot oven for consistent baking.

(2) In a stand mixer, beat together butter and sugar with mixer until light and fluffy.

Again, if you don’t have a stand mixer, use a large bowl and hand mixer as the recipe specifies.

(3) Add eggs and vanilla; mix well.

(4) Blend in chocolate.

(5) Combine flour and baking powder; gradually add to butter mixture, beating until smooth.

(6) Remove from bowl and wrap the dough in plastic wrap. Cover and chill until firm, about 1 hour.

I’ve found that taking the dough out of the bowl allows the dough to chill faster and more evenly. Essentially, your fridge isn’t spending any time chilling the bowl and there aren’t any cold spots for the dough to sit on.

(7) Once thoroughly chilled, roll dough approximately 1/8 in. thick.

Use parchment paper for easy counter clean-up and easy moving from counter to baking sheet.

(8) Dip cutters in flour, cut and transfer cookies to cookie sheet.

(9) Bake 8-10 minutes.

(10) Remove to rack and cool thoroughly.

I will let my cookies cool slightly on the pan before trying to move them, especially if you’re making them large. That way they won’t crack or bend.

These were some great tasting cookies. Although reflecting on it, I wish they had more of a chocolate taste. The regular roll-out cookie recipe didn’t require any chilling and I thought it would be a lot easier working with the chilled dough.

Yeah, not so much.

The regular recipe was a lot easier to roll and cut because you could add flour if needed and it was a little more pliable.

If I were to make it again, I’d use a semi-sweet chocolate square to give it a little more chocolate taste. Stay tuned for both the regular roll-out cookie review and how I decorated these tasty treats. As always… Happy Cooking!!!

You Want Me to Cook?

Sunday, June 3, 2012

Wilton’s Chocolate Roll-Out Cookies

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