Cookie Coatings

One of my favorite cookies I make all the time is a chocolate cake mix cookie. They are so soft and so chocolatey, everyone always loves them. I made a batch last night for my husband who likes to make a cookie sundae with vanilla ice cream, cookie dough bits and a couple of hot cookies from the oven to finish it off. Yes, it's really really good. Now, where was I...oh yes, my favorite chocolate cookie.

To make the chocolate cookies, you roll the dough into balls and then into powdered sugar and bake. So, I thought it would be interesting to roll the balls of dough into different coatings and see how they baked up and more importantly, how they tasted.

From the top and left to right:
Cinnamon-Nutmeg, Rainbow nonpareils, Plain powdered sugar.
Cocoa powder, Shredded coconut, Chocolate protein powder.
Granulated sugar, Coffee, Brown sugar.

I mixed most of the coatings with powdered sugar so they would stick to the cookie dough better.

 They all baked up fine and the texture didn't change that much.

Now it was time to taste all the cookies. Yahoo!

 The Results:

Cinnamon-nutmeg: Cinnamon and a pinch of nutmeg was mixed with powdered sugar. This coating was one of my favorites! It gave the cookie a really nice, but subtle spicey warm flavor. I would make this combination again. Very good.

Nonpareils: This one was too crunchy, of course. Maybe a few rainbow sprinkles on top would be fun.

Plain: The original delicious fudgy cookie.

Cocoa: Powdered sugar/cocoa powder mix. Added a nice chocolatey boost to the cookies, but had a dry texture on the outside and kind of stuck to the roof of your mouth while eating it. Wouldn't make again.

Coconut: I grounded up flaked coconut with powdered sugar so it would adhere better. This combination was another one of my favorite. The coconut gave the cookie a chewy exterior, but the middle was still soft and fudgy. The coconut chocolate combo was really tasty.

Protein Powder: The worst cookie of the group, it just had an odd flavor. I was stretching with this one.

Granulated Sugar: This was a tasty combo. The cookie had nice crunchy exterior and wasn't that much sweeter. I would make this one again.

Coffee: This was the ugliest looking cookie of the bunch. I was surprised that it didn't taste terrible too. I blended finely ground coffee with powdered sugar to take out some of the bite of the coffee. This coating gave the cookie a good coffee flavor and the texture wasn't too gritty, but I don't think I would make this version again. I would add coffee flavor another way.

Brown Sugar: This was way too sweet. With the brown sugar being so moist, you had to really press a lot onto each ball of dough to get it to stick. The outside was fairly crunchy too.

* * *

The winners of the group; cinnamon-nutmeg, coconut and granulated sugar.  I would take of tray of these plus the original powdered-sugar coated ones to a party. Yum!

Original Chocolate Gooey Cookies
1 stick butter, room temperature
1 (8 oz) block cream cheese, room temperature
1 egg, room temperature
1 tsp. vanilla
1 chocolate cake mix

Beat butter and cream cheese together until light and fluffy. Mix in egg and vanilla. Beat in cake mix until throughly incorporated. Refrigerate dough for two hours (so it's easier to handle). Roll chilled dough into balls and then into powdered sugar. Bake at 350 for 11 minutes.

If you're feeling adventurous, try one of the winning cookie coating combinations above!