Devil's Food Cookies

From Candy Cane Murder written by Joanne Fluke. Make sure you use regular American cocoa only, not Dutch processed or Cocoa Mix. There are 2 Icing recipes to choose from to top the cookies. Mix and match as you like. If you want to get extra fancy the recipe says you can add food coloring to the Icing and use other extracts to flavor them. You can also drizzle the white Icing one direction and the chocolate the other direction. To make drizzling the cookies easier, line them up on waxed paper touching each other. Yeild is a guesstimate as it was not listed.

• Ready In: 55 mins
• Serves: 48
• Yields: 4 dozen cookies

Ingredients

• Cookie Dough

• 2  cups flour
• 1 3⁄4 cups granulated sugar
• 1⁄2 cocoa powder
• 1⁄2 teaspoon salt
• 1  teaspoon baking soda
• 1⁄2 cup butter, melted
• 1  egg, beaten
• 1⁄2 cup coffee, extra strong
• 1⁄2 cup granulated sugar, in a bowl for later

• White Powdered Sugar Icing

• 1  cup powdered sugar
• 1⁄2 teaspoon vanilla
• 1⁄4 teaspoon salt
• 2 -4  tablespoons  light cream

• Chocolate Powdered Sugar Icing

• 1  cup powdered sugar
• 1⁄4 cup  cocoa
• 1⁄2 teaspoon vanilla
• 1⁄4 teaspoon salt
• 3 -6  tablespoons  light cream

Directions

1. In a large bowl mix the flour, sugr, cocoa powdrer, salt and baking soda. Once these dry ingredients are combined, add the melted butter and mix thoroughly.
2. Add the beaten egg and mix thoroughly. Add the strong coffee and mix thoroughly.
3. Chill the dough in the refrigerator for at least 1 hour. Overnight is fine too.
4. When you're ready to bake, preheat the oven to 350.
5. Roll the dough into 1" diameter balls with your hands. This dough may be sticky, so roll only enough for the cookies you plan to bake immediately and return the bowl to the refrigerator. Roll the dough balls in the bowl of sugar and place them on a greased cookie sheet, 12 balls to a standard sheet. Flatten slightly with the heel of your clean hand so they won't roll off on the way to the oven.
6. Bake at 350 for 8-10 minutes. Cool on the cookie sheet for 1 minute and then move to wire rack to cool completely. If you leave them on the cookie sheet longer they will stick.
7. White Icing - Mix the powdered sugar with the vanilla and the salt. Add the light cream gradually until the icing is the consistency you want. Put icing into a plastic food storage bag. Twist the top closed and cut off one of the bottom corners to let out the icing. Squeeze it out and drizzle it in fine lines over the cookies.
8. Chocolate Icing - Mix the powdered sugar with the cocoa. Blend it until the resulting mixture is a uniform color. Add the vanilla and the salt. Add the light cream gradually until the icing is the consistency you want. Put icing into a plastic food storage bag. Twist the top closed and cut off one of the bottom corners to let out the icing. Squeeze it out and drizzle it in fine lines over the cookies.
9. Let the icing dry completely and then pack in single layers in a box lined with wax paper. Do not stack them!