Chocolate Beet Crinkle Cookies #Choctoberfest

We are all just stardust on a tiny speck in an unimaginable multiverse. The following chocolate beet crinkle cookie is pretty pointless if you consider it in light of the reality, but I'm sharing it anyway. That's what happens when you come home from a wonderful talk by Neil DeGrasse Tyson knowing that you're going to be putting up a cookie recipe later. Like a food blog is important in the grand scheme of life. Might as well eat a cookie. NDT gives an excellent show if you're able to go.

 Follow me | Pinterest | Instagram | Facebook

THIS IMAGE IS FROM NASA'S CASSINI MISSION. I ADDED THE ARROW. YOU'RE LOOKING AT AN ECLIPSE WITH THE SUN BEHIND SATURN. WE'RE A LITTLE SPECK NEAR THE ARROW.

Roasted beets in a tender and chocolatey crinkle cookie.

Now that I'm settling into a routine of posting dessert recipes (a very brief routine), I felt it would be prudent to reveal more of my veggie-loving self and bring some beets to the party.  It's our 4th date, I think it's about time. After all, the purpose of my blog is to provide practical support for local eating and where I've eaten locally that means beets. Lots and lots of beets.

I'm still waiting to find the recipe that makes me crave the beets I get in my Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) farm share (found it!) so I enlisted the help of my fellow food bloggers for recipe ideas. I've got 59 recipes in my Beet Recipes Collection. This recipe will make an even 60! That collection is part of the Visual Recipe Index by Ingredient, a resource for folks like me eating from the farm share, the farmer's market, and random beets that show up in the mail.

The first time I made this recipe I was using beets sent to me without obligation from Melissa's Produce. They are shown in the ingredient photo below, roasted and ready-to-go in a clever shrink-wrapped package. After I got a vacuum sealer for Christmas, I duplicated their idea since I frequently have beets lolliping around in the crisper looking for something to do.

If you've got beets, roast them drizzled with a bit of olive or cooking oil and wrapped in foil at 425 degrees Fahrenheit for as long as it takes to make them 'give' when you squeeze them. It ranges anywhere from 20 minutes to 80 minutes for me, depending on the size of the beet.

Note: like other vegetable-based baked goodies, beets bring a moistness that is delicious on the first day but, unlike pumpkin bread, gets downright strangely sticky by Day 3. If you are not going to consume the entire plate in one day, I recommend freezing the remainder of the dough for future baking. That's why you see photos from the plate that went out to the  block party the other week, as well as the more set up shots from when I made my first version of these cookies (with chocolate chips).

Chocolate Beet Crinkle Cookies

Ingredients

• 1 cup finely chopped roasted beets (see Note above)
• 1 stick (8 Tablespoons) unsalted butter at room temperature
• ¾ cup granulated sugar, such as our sponsor Imperial sugar known 'round here as Dixie Crystals
• ½ cup brown sugar
• 2 large eggs
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• ¾ cup unsweetened cocoa powder
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• ½ teaspoon salt (I use kosher)
• ½ teaspoon baking soda
• 2 cups unbleached all purpose flour
• optional--1 cup mini chocolate chips
• lots and lots of powdered sugar (I didn't measure)

Instructions

1. In a large bowl with a spoon, or in a stand mixer with paddle attachment, blend beets and butter together. Dump in sugars and mix until creamy. Add in eggs and vanilla and mix well.
2. Dump cocoa powder, baking powder, salt, baking soda and unbleached all purpose flour into the bowl and stir well. Stir in mini chips if you're using. You should have a soft dough.
3. Chill dough for at least an hour up to overnight, until it is stiff.
4. When you're ready to bake, preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit, line cookie sheets with parchment paper, and pour some powdered sugar (at least ½ cup to start) into a small bowl.
5. Scoop cookie dough out into 1½ teaspoon balls, roll in powdered sugar, and place 2 inches apart on prepared cookie sheet. Re-roll all the balls in powdered sugar after you fill the pan once (double coat them with powdered sugar, giving a couple minutes rest in between to absorb sugar).
6. Bake for 10 to 12 minutes until puffed, then cool on the cookie sheet for 2-3 minutes before transferring to a cooling rack to finish.
7. Best eaten the day they are baked. The dough can hang out in the fridge for a few days or freezer for a month.

Why am I sharing all of these dessert recipes? It's #Choctoberfest! 

Disclosure--I have not received anything for participating in #Choctoberfest. I did get some beets from Melissa's Produce that I used in an earlier version of these cookies, but the beets shown in the final version were from my farm share.

Here's what the rest of the participants are making:

An InLinkz Link-up