One Cookie Dough, Three Ways

This tasty dough can be made ahead and transformed into three different crowd-pleasing cookies using various dark chocolates, ingredients and decorations, making it the perfect recipe for any occasion. Make one, or all three—it’s up to you. They can also be frozen ahead of time for slice-and-bake treats for guests.

Chocolate-Dipped Cookies with Sea Salt

Ingredients

• Cookie dough (see Cookie Dough Base recipe)
• 1 bar (100 g) Lindt Excellence Sea Salt dark chocolate
• Maldon sea salt or any large flake salt

Steps

1. On a very lightly-floured work surface, form the blended dough into a ball and then roll into a cylinder about 2 inches across. Wrap in plastic and set in the fridge on a flat surface to chill for a minimum of 1 hour.
2. Chop the chocolate into small, uniform pieces and place in a heatproof, microwave-safe bowl. Reserve.
3. When ready to bake, preheat the oven to 350°F (180°C) and line a large baking sheet with parchment paper. Unwrap the dough roll and slice cookies about ½ an inch thick. Dough may be crumbly; simply use your fingers to reshape any part of the cookie that’s broken or misshapen. Place the slices on the baking sheet about 1½ inches apart. Bake for about 10 minutes until the edges start to brown and cookies are firm to the touch.
4. While the cookies are cooling, gently melt the chocolate over a pan of simmering water or in the microwave with 20 second bursts until just warm. Let the chocolate cool slightly, then dip the cookies into the melted chocolate and sprinkle very lightly with a few grains of large flake salt. Place in the fridge to chill and set.

Lindt Excellence Orange Intense Chocolate Chunk Cookies

Ingredients

• 1 bar (100 g) Lindt Excellence Orange Intense dark chocolate
• Cookie dough (see Cookie Dough Base recipe above)
• ½ tsp (3 mL) orange zest, plus extra for decoration
• ½ bar (50 g) Lindt Excellence 78% Cacao Dark
• Chocolate for decoration

Steps

1. Break the Excellence Orange Intense Dark Chocolate into squares and chop into ¼ inch pieces. You do not need to be too precise but it’s nice if all the pieces are around the same size.
2. Fold the chocolate and orange zest into the dough until it’s well incorporated. On a very lightly-floured work surface, form the dough into a ball and roll into a cylinder about 2 inches across. Wrap in plastic and set in the fridge on a flat surface to chill for a minimum of 1 hour.
3. When ready to bake, preheat the oven to 350°F (180°C) and line a large baking sheet with parchment paper. Unwrap the dough roll and slice cookies about ½ an inch thick. Dough may be crumbly; simply use your fingers to reshape any part of the cookie that’s broken or misshapen. Place the slices on the baking sheet about 1 ½ inches apart. Bake for 10 minutes or until the edges start to brown and cookies are firm to the touch. Allow cookies to cool completely.
4. To decorate the cookies after they have cooled, chop the Excellence 78% Cacao Dark Chocolate into small, uniform pieces and place in a microwave-safe bowl. Microwave for 20 second bursts, stirring each time, until just melted and warm. Drizzle over the cookies in a zig-zag pattern and grate extra orange zest overtop.

Chocolate Snowflake Cookies

Ingredients

• ½ bar (50 g) Lindt Excellence 78% Cacao dark chocolate
• Cookie dough (see Cookie Dough Base recipe above)
• 2 tbsp (30 mL) all-purpose flour
• Snowflake stencil
• Blue icing for decoration
• Dragées for decoration

Steps

1. Chop the chocolate into small, uniform pieces and place in a heatproof, microwave-safe bowl. Gently melt the chocolate over a pan of simmering water or in the microwave with 20 second bursts until just warm. Allow the chocolate to cool.
2. Add the melted and cooled chocolate (using cooled chocolate is important, otherwise it will melt the butter in the dough) to the dough, along with the flour and blend with a spatula or fork until the chocolate is thoroughly mixed through the dough. On a very lightly-floured work surface, form the blended dough into a ball and then roll into a cylinder about 2 inches across. Wrap in plastic and set in the fridge on a flat surface to chill for a minimum of 1 hour.
3. When ready to bake, preheat the oven to 350°F (180°C) and line a large baking sheet with parchment paper. Unwrap the dough
roll and slice cookies about ½ an inch thick. Dough may be crumbly; simply use your fingers to reshape any part of the cookie that’s broken or misshapen. Place the slices on the baking sheet about 1 ½ inches apart. Bake for 10 minutes or until the edges start to brown and cookies are firm to the touch. Allow cookies to cool completely.
4. To decorate, place a small snowflake stencil over each cooled cookie and fill with blue icing. Place a dragée in the centre of each snowflake to finish.

Cookie Dough Base

Prep time: 10 minutes
Cook time: 20 minutes
Servings: 18 

Ingredients

• 3 sticks (125 g each) unsalted butter, room temperature
• 1 ½ cups (375 mL) icing sugar
• 3 cups (750 mL) all-purpose flour
• ½ tsp (3 mL) salt

Steps

1. Cream the butter and icing sugar until light and fluffy. Add in the flour and salt until just incorporated and the dough just begins to form a clump.

Note: You can bake as many or as few cookies as desired and place the rest of the sliced dough in the freezer for later use. When making your next batch, simply bake from frozen. Baked cookies keep well for 2 weeks and sliced, raw dough in the freezer for 3 months.