Marble Cookies

Thank you Mrs. Fields!  Her book, The Best Cookie Book Ever! 130 Delicious Cookie and Dessert Recipes is my absolute favorite when it comes to the "Gail-Hamlin-Holiday-Bake-Off".  While I haven't made all of them, the many I have made were amazing.  Way to go Mrs. Fields. Love her. 

Praises aside, in this book is one of my favorite cookies: Marbles.

MARBLES

INGREDIENTS:

2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup (packed) light brown sugar
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1 stick (1/2 cup) salted butter, softened
1 large egg
4 oz. sour cream (1/2 cup)
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
6 oz semisweet chocolate chips (about 1 cup)

Makes about 2 1/2 dozen cookies.

DIRECTIONS:

Preheat oven to 300 degrees.

In medium bowl, combine flour, baking powder, and salt with wire whisk.  Set aside.

Combine sugars in a large bowl using an electric mixer set at medium speed.  Add butter and beat until batter is grainy.  Add egg, sour cream and vanilla, and beat at medium speed until light and fluffy.  Scrape bowl.  Add the flour mixture and blend at low speed until just combined.  Do not overmix.

Place chocolate chips in double boiler over hot, but not boiling water.  Stir constantly until melted.  Or, place chips in a microwave-proof bowl and microwave on high, stirring every 20 seconds until melted.

Cool chocolate for a few minutes and pour over cookie batter.  Using a wooden spoon or rubber spatula, lightly fold melted chocolate into the dough.  Do not mix chocolate completely into cookie dough.

Drop by rounded teaspoons, 2 inches apart, onto ungreased cookie sheets.  Bake 20 to 22 minutes.  Do not brown.  Quickly transfer cookies to a cool surface.

PERSONAL NOTES:

Sometimes I use semisweet chocolate, sometimes milk chocolate.  This time I used both.  I split the cookie dough and put semisweet in one, milk in the other.  I wanted to offer a bit of variety.

I also find the dough can be a little too soft to manage at first so I'll put it in the fridge (with the chocolate folded into it) for about 30 minutes.  Just long enough to stiffen it up a bit, but not too long that you have to work it out again to soften. 

One thing I recently purchased is an ice cream scooper with the release.  I bought one in a 3 tablespoon size and one in a 1-tablespoon size.  I find it SO much easier to handle the dough this way.  It doesn't get all gooey on my hands and you don't have to do any reshaping once the dough is on the cookie sheet.

Oh - that's another thing.  For almost everything I bake now (that requires a cookie sheet anyway), I use parchment.  I can't believe I've gone this long without ever using it.  I won't go back to plain cookie sheets.  It makes clean up a snap!  You must use parchment.  So, so easy.

One more thing on the baking time for these cookies.  Mrs. Fields is WAY off base when stating these cookies need to bake for 20-22 minutes.  I probably keep them in for about 10 minutes, maximum.  I check on them at 8 minutes to see what's going on.  If they're done at 8 minutes, so be it. So especially if you're making a recipe for the first time, try to keep checking on the cookies as they bake to watch their progress - unless you have a glass oven door and can see what's going on.