Cream butter and sugar: cream butter with powdered sugar for 1 minute on medium speed until light and fluffy.
Add all other ingredients: add all remaining dough ingredients (but not the second ¼ cup of cocoa for dusting), and mix on low speed for about 30 seconds just until fully combined (the dough will be pretty sticky).
Coat the dough fully in cocoa: lightly sprinkle cocoa over your work surface (just like you would when flouring a work surface). Transfer the dough to your work surface, form it into a single mass (doing your best to work out any major holes in the center), and form it into a thick cylinder (re-coating the surface and dusting your hands with cocoa as needed). The dough will be very sticky to start, but as soon as you get a full coat of cocoa powder on it, it should be easy to work with.
Roll it up: start to roll the cylinder into a log until it's about 1 ½"-2" wide and 10" long. Wrap your log neatly in plastic wrap (trying to avoid major bumps of excess wrap), then use one hand on each end to twist the ends of the wrap in opposite directions to tighten the wrap around the dough (essentially making a chocolate dough sausage).
Chill, roll, then chill again: place your dough log in the fridge for 30 minutes. After that, pull your log out of the fridge and re-round it by just rolling it on the counter (while it's still in the plastic wrap), now that the dough is a little stiffer. Place the log back in the fridge and allow it to chill for another 30 minutes, then re-roll it once more. Finally, place the dough in the freezer for at least one more hour or overnight to fully chill through (you can even leave the dough in the freezer for up to a month as long as it's wrapped air-tight).
TO BAKE THE COOKIES:
Prep and line: at the end of the chilling time, preheat your oven to 350°F and line two baking sheets with parchment paper.
Slice, tray, and bake: place your dough log on a cutting board and use a straight-edged blade cut into ¼-inch-thick rounds. Place sliced cookies on prepared trays, at least 2” apart. Bake for 14-16 minutes, until the tops look dry, matte, and feel set when gently pressed. (You should be able to smell a delicious chocolate aroma in the kitchen when they're about done).
Cool, share, and enjoy: allow cookies to cool on their pan for 10 minutes, then transfer to a cooling rack to allow them to cool fully. Enjoy as a classic chocolate butter cookie, or continue on to decorate your cookies once they're fully cooled.*1
TO DECORATE (optional):
Melt chocolate: to decorate your cookies, line them up about 1" apart on cooling racks, over parchment, foil, or plastic wrap (for easy cleanup!). Melt chocolate fully in a double boiler or in the microwave.*2
Drizzle on chocolate, then add sprinkles: use a fork to drizzle the chocolate back and forth over the cookies on the cooling rack. Sprinkle some sprinkles on top if you like then allow chocolate to set for a few hours before enjoying these rich, dark chocolate delights!*3
Notes
*1To decorate or not to decorate: these cookies are absolutely delicious on their own and don't require any additional decor or gilding, but there are definitely some options to snazzy them up if you like!
*2Melting chocolate: if using the microwave, use 50% power or less in 30-second intervals, stirring well between each to prevent burning the chocolate.
*3Chocolate set time: if simply melting your chocolate for the drizzle, you'll want to give your cookies a few hours for the chocolate to harden after decorating. If you want your chocolate to set much faster, you can always temper it (just make sure it is couverture chocolate). Here's a great tutorial on tempering if you'd like to learn how to temper.
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