Old Mother Hubbard went to the cupboard

Last night my daughter, Katie, and I were craving something sweet and chocolaty and decided to bake some chocolate chip cookies. When we gathered up the ingredients,we quickly realized that we didn’t have any butter. . . or shortening. Then we remembered a chocolate cookie recipe that calls for vegetable oil. Good thing. Our chocolate craving was getting intense.

I got this recipe from my friend, Cyrhen. These cookies are pretty and can satisfy a chocolate craving in an instant. The hardest thing with this recipe is waiting for the batter to chill. That delays actually eating them, and that is what this exercise is all about -- eating the finished product. Chilling the batter, however, makes it easier to roll it in the powdered sugar.

CHOCOLATE CRINKLE COOKIES

½ cup vegetable oil
4 squares (1 oz, each) unsweetened chocolate, melted
2 cups sugar
4 eggs
2 tsp. vanilla
2 cups flour
2 tsp. baking powder
½ tsp. salt
powdered sugar

Combine oil, chocolate and sugar together. Add eggs, one at a time. Stir in vanilla. Add flour, baking powder, and salt and stir until evenly blended.

Chill batter 30-60 minutes, or until it is firm. Heat oven to 350 degrees. Roll batter into walnut-size balls and roll each ball in powdered sugar, covering all sides. Place sugared balls 2 inches apart on a greased cookie sheet. Bake 10-12 minutes. Cookies will not look done. Cool slightly and remove from cookie sheet.

MAKES 3 DOZEN

If you don’t want to take the time to melt the chocolate you can substitute ¾ cup unsweetened cocoa powder and 4 Tbsp. oil for the 4 squares of chocolate. It's much easier.