Meat Man Cookies

I love to put my own twist on something that is generally familiar to people, I enjoy their reactions to the new flavor in an old favorite, or their surprise at how familiar they are with a recipe that they did not recognize in its new clothes.

I got to have that moment last night when I shared some of my experimentations with my favorite taste tester, my friend P. I brought her a thick chocolate cookie that she knew was familiar, but couldn't quite tell me why.

It was a chocolate version of a snickerdoodle!

I learned how to make these cookies in 7th grade at school, but I can quite recall why we learned this. I did retain the recipe for all of these years, but the recipe uses a box cake mix and I try extremely hard not to use those.

For years I didn't share this recipe with others because it was my ace in the hole. Everyone loved them, but had never tasted them before. I always kept a box of cake mix in the pantry in case I needed to impress someone on the fly.

I finally stopped being lazy and figured out how to make these from scratch about a year ago.

I re-named them for a friend of mine's husband who has a meat distribution business and who also LOVES these cookies.

So here they are:

Meat Man Cookies

1 Cup + 2 Tablespoons All purpose flour

¾ Cup Evaporated Cane Sugar

1/3 Cup Cocoa Powder

¾ teaspoons baking soda

½ Teaspoon Salt

1/8 Teaspoon Baking Powder

¼ Cup Vegetable Oil

2 eggs

Sugar or sprinkles for coating

Pre-heat oven to 350F.

Sift together the flour, sugar, cocoa, salt, baking soda and powder into a medium bowl.

With a spatula or large fork, combine the flour mixture with the vegetable oil and eggs until just combined. The mixture will be thick, but should fully combine.

Scoop into large balls, about 3 tablespoons, and roll the top of the cookie into coarse sugar or colored sprinkles.

Place about 2 inches apart onto a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper.

Bake 14-18 minutes; the centers will still be fairly soft but the edges and bottom will be done.

Remove from cookie sheet and place on a wire rack to cool.

Makes 8 large cookies.