It’s no secret that I like cute food. Mini foods are cute foods, and they’re bite sized so they’re easy to eat! Not that eating is ever difficult. I’m still Valentine’s Day crazed, and I can’t ever get enough chocolate. Do you see where this is going? Something edible that’s cute, chocolatey, and Valentine’s-y.

I’ve been making these Chocolate Covered Cherry Cookies for years, and I love them, but I’ve been trying to lessen the refined sugars in my life so I thought I’d play in the kitchen and see if I could make a cookie without granulated sugar. My first inclination was honey because I always have many varieties on hand, but then I wanted to step outside my wheelhouse and try something new. I’ve never used maple syrup for any application other than smothering pancakes and waffles. Until now. These cookies are sweetened only by maple syrup, and flavored with cocoa powder, dark chocolate, and vanilla extract. They’re like little pillows of thick cake/brownie/cookie bites. Seriously, they’re shaped like cookies so they’re called cookies, but the consistency borders that of a brownie or a homemade cake. This is due, in part, to the fact that I used baking powder instead of baking soda. Also, maple syrup acts differently than granulated sugar so that affects the overall taste and consistency. These cookies have a deep chocolate flavor, and soft, slightly crumbly texture but they’re not at all dry. After popping a few in my mouth… at a time… I mean, c’mon, they’re tiny! You have to eat like 7 to equal one regular-sized cookie, right? Right.

So anyway. In classic If You Give a Mouse a Cookie style (one of my favorite childhood books) the soft texture of these little chocolate delights got me to thinking about ice cream sandwiches. Those cookies are soft and thin so they’re easy to bite through when surrounding cold ice cream. These cookies are small and soft, and they can be thin if you press them down before baking, so they would be the cutest mini ice cream sandwiches ever! Since it’s Valentine’s Day, I had to use a pink ice cream. I opted for cherry since the original cookie recipe included dried cherries and this recipe excludes them. Using what I already had on hand, I took my favorite vanilla ice cream, defrosted some frozen cherries, mashed them and mixed them into the vanilla ice cream and came up with some seriously delicious bootleg cherry ice cream (to use a favorite term of my brother’s).

Two teaspoons of my new ice cream got sandwiched between two mini double chocolate cookies, then they all got stacked up on top of each other. Because if you’re already playing with your food you might as well see how high of a tower you can build. Then knock it down and eat it like Godzilla! The moral of the story here is this: You need these Mini Double Chocolate Cookies in your life. And if you’re going to have mini double chocolate cookies, then you’re going to need some cherry ice cream to go with them.

Yield: 45

Mini Double Chocolate Cookies

Prep Time: 7 minutes

Cook Time: 12 minutes

Total Time: 19 minutes

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Ingredients

• 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
• 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/8 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, softened
• 3/4 cup pure maple syrup
• 1 large egg
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 4 ounces (1 cup) chopped chocolate

Instructions

1. Preheat the oven to 325F.
2. Sift together the flour, cocoa, baking powder and salt into a small bowl.
3. In a large bowl, cream together the butter and maple syrup until smooth. Mix in the egg and vanilla until combined.
4. Stir the flour mixture into the butter mixture until combined.
5. Fold in the chopped chocolate.
6. Using a 2 teaspoon portion scoop, drop the dough onto a baking sheet and bake for 10-15 minutes, until puffed and set.

Notes

These cookies do not spread. They will stay rounded if you simply drop the dough onto the baking sheet. Flatten the dough with the palm of your hand just before baking, if desired.