Stamped (Chocolate) Cookies #28 from Your Baking Bestie

Stamped (Chocolate) Cookies #28 - made dough January 20, 2023, modified from Your Baking Bestie 

1 cup salted butter, room temperature

1 cup granulated sugar

1 large egg

1 tablespoon vanilla extract

1/2 cup Dutch process cocoa powder

2 teaspoons baking powder (I used 1 teaspoon)

2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon espresso powder

1. In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cream together the butter and granulated sugar until well combined, 1-2 minutes. Beat in egg and vanilla until just combined.
2. In a separate bowl, whisk together cocoa powder, baking powder, salt and espresso powder. Add to butter mixture in two additions and beat on low speed after each addition until just combined. 
3. Cover and chill dough for several hours.
4. When ready to bake, preheat oven to 350 degrees and line baking sheets with parchment paper.
5. Remove dough from refrigerator and pour 1/4 cup granulated sugar in small bowl. Portion dough into balls, roll in granulated sugar and press with cookie stamp. Cut with cookie cutter for clean edges. Evenly space on baking sheets. Bake 12-13 minutes. Remove from oven and let rest on baking sheet for several minutes before transferring to wire rack to cool completely.

I'm listing the recipe as I originally found it on Your Baking Bestie's blog but I modified this to only use 1 teaspoon of baking powder instead of the 2 teaspoons she listed. I wanted to have sharp impressions of the designs in the baked cookie and the more leavener you have, the more your cookies are likely to puff during baking then deflate, leaving a less distinct stamped impression.

At first I was afraid cutting the baking powder by half would yield a more dense cookie but this actually had good texture and "fluff" (not too light but not too dense either) while still keeping a faithful rendition of the stamped designs.

Flavor was good as well. As usual, you want to use a good, high quality cocoa powder so that you can enjoy a good, high quality flavor.