Christmas Post- 4, Chocolate dipped chocolate cookies

I found this recipe in Home and Garden's Christmas edition. The original asks for a tree cookie cutter and the pictures of that were simply adorable. Unfortunately I couldnt find a fir shaped cutter and just made them regular rounds. Never having worked with dough of this consistency I was a little baffled at first but had it down by the second batch. More below.

You will need

For cookies:

1 cup butter

2/3 cup packed brown sugar

1 tsp vanilla

1 egg

2 1/4 cups all- purpose flour

1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder

In a saucepan combine butter and brown sugar. Heat on low heat until butter is melted. Remove saucepan from heat and stir in vanilla. Stir in egg, flour and cocoa powder until mixture is combined. Divide dough in half and cover and chill for 30 mins.

Preheat oven to 350F. On a lightly floured surface, roll dough (half at a time) to a 1/4 inch thickness. Now, heres the tricky part, the dough has a tendency to crumble, so continuous rolling will NOT work. I had to press the dough flat (uniformly) with the rolling pin till about 2 inch thick and then use a combination movement of rolling and pressing till the dough is 1/4 inch thick. Cut out shapes using cookie cutter. Place cutouts 1 inch apart on ungreased cookie shee.

Bake in preheated oven for about 9 minutes or until edges are firm. Transfer to wire rack and cool.

For chocolate dip:

3/4 cup semisweet chocolate pieces

1/2 cup ground pecans

1/2 cup grated coconut

1 tbsp butter

In a small heavy saucepan combine chocolate pieces and butter and mix till chocolate and butter melt together. Remove from heat.

Dip each cookie into chocolate mixture and then into either coconut or ground pecans.