Chocolate Cinnamon Sparkle Cookies

Trick-or-Treat? Here at Tundra, we always prefer treats. To celebrate Halloween, I made some chocolate cinnamon sparkles cookies for my colleagues. The recipe is from The Case of the Missing Deed by Ellen Schwartz, a culinary mystery for ages 8-11.

Take a dash of colorful characters, a pinch of danger, and generous scoops of adventure and you have a terrific culinary mystery for young readers. Ellen Schwartz introduces her young readers to a delicious genre. She even provides easy-to-follow and yummy to eat recipes. Here is one of them:

Chocolate Cinnamon Sparkle Cookies
Star light, star bright, can you see the sparkle tonight?
Recipe reprinted from The Case of the Missing Deed by Ellen Schwartz

Ingredients:
9 ounces (approximately 1¾ cups) bittersweet chocolate
3 tablespoons unsalted butter, cut into cubes
2 eggs
1½ cup granulated sugar, plus 1 cup more for rolling
1 tablespoon honey
¼ cup finely ground almonds or almond meal
1 tablespoon cocoa powder
1 teaspoon cinnamon

Instructions:

1. Chop chocolate, then set aside ¼ cup. Fill a small pot halfway with water and bring to a simmer. Transfer remaining chocolate to a heat-proof bowl, then place bowl on top of simmering water. Stir the chocolate gently until it melts. Add cubes of butter and stir until they melt, set the mixture aside to cool while you prepare the other ingredients.
2. Beat the eggs, sugar, and honey until the mixture thickens. The eggs are ready when you can lift the whisk and the mixture holds a ribbon-like shape when you dribble it back on itself.
3. Gently stir the chocolate mixture into the egg mixture, then add the ground almonds, cocoa, salt, ½ teaspoon of the cinnamon, and the chocolate you set aside earlier.
4. Cover the dough with plastic wrap and chill it until it is firm enough to roll, at least 4 hours or overnight.
5. Preheat the oven to 325° F.
6. Prepare a bowl with 1 cup of granulated sugar and the other ½ teaspoon of cinnamon. Roll the chilled dough between your palms into 1¼” balls, and drop the balls into the sugar.
   
7. Gently shake the bowl to coat cookie balls with sugar, then place on a lined or buttered baking tray 2 inches apart.
   
8. Bake cookies until the tops are dry but the centers are still soft, about 12 minutes.
   
9. Remove cookies from oven and cool 15 minutes, then gently drop the cookies (round side down) into the remaining sugar to add more sparkle.

Enjoy!

Recipe excerpted from The Case of the Missing Deed by Ellen Schwartz. Copyright © 2011 by Ellen Schwartz. Photographs Copyright © 2011 by Sylvia Chan. Excerpted by permission of Tundra Books. All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.