Martha's Chocolate Cutout Cookies

This is a recipe that I revisit every year.  The cookies are tender and a bit spicy, with just a hint of cinnamon and black pepper.  The Martha Stewart Weddings Book first introduced us to these tasty morsels and has since been used in many of her publications.  Everyone always likes them, so I tend to make several batches.  Click here for the recipe.  This dough can be refrigerated for a few days or frozen if you don't plan on making them that day.  Follow along.

The ingredients are carefully measured out. This recipe can also be found in her magnum opus, The Martha Stewart Cookbook.

 

Since the recipe calls for cocoa powder, I always sift it through a strainer to get rid of the lumps.  Cocoa has a habit of clumping, so it's very important to take this step.  I used dark Valrhona cocoa powder from France.

If a recipe calls for creaming butter and sugar, I take the step of doing the butter first.  This helps make it more malleable and easier to incorporate the sugar.

I add the sugar in a steady stream until it's creamed well.  Don't forget to scrape down your mixing bowl.

This is what your creamed butter and sugar should look like before adding your eggs.

 

When adding the dry ingredients, I shut the mixer down and add the entire contents to the bowl.

I then cover my mixer with a clean kitchen towel to keep the flour and cocoa from flying out of the bowl.  I learned this from Martha.

Turn your mixer on low speed and let the dough gather around the paddle attachment.  This is what your finished product should look like when it's ready. 

Divide your dough and cover it well with plastic wrap.  You can now proceed with your recipe.

One of the things that I love about this dough is that it can be treated as a refrigerator cookie dough or a rollout butter cookie dough.  It's quite forgiving and always a pleasure to work with.  Give this recipe a try.  I'll show you how I made these cookies into baby shower cookies in a future post.  Start baking!