Chocolate Balls (Cookie Recipe)
This recipe, just like the recipe for Cucidati cookies, is very close to my heart. We make these cookies every year, right before Christmas. Until this year, I never really knew EXACTLY what was in these cookies.Ā
Chocolate Balls were something my mother and grandfather made together. But a few years ago he passed, and my mom has since allowed my siblings and I to make them with her — only she makes the dough in advance, we are just her ball-rolling soldiers. š
What’s so great about these cookies is that they’re so much more complex than the traditional “chocolate” flavor. And for some reason, Italians like to make their cookies into ball shapes, so there’s that too!Ā
A COUPLE IMPORTANT NOTES:
- We have tried making these with a stand mixer once…the texture came out way off. It’s best if you use your hand-mixer and then switch to good-old-fashioned elbow grease when the dough gets too thick.Ā
- Keep these balls smaller than you think, otherwise you’ll end up with HUGE cookies as they expand when they bake!
- Make sure you let your cookies completely cool before icing them, or it will run off and not set properly. You can use any milk you like, we’ve tried it with 1/2% dairy milk and almond milk and liked both.
Here’s some of the equipment you’ll need to make these delicious little balls of love!
Chocolate Balls (cookie) Recipe
Equipment
- oven
- cookie sheets
- hand mixer
- mixing bowls
Ingredients
- 1 cup raisins
- 1 cup mini chocolate chips
- 1 cup chopping walnuts
- 1/2 cup milk
- 4 cup flour
- 1.25 cup sugar
- 6 tbsp (heaping) cocoa powder
- .5 tsp black pepper
- 1 tsp baking soda
- .5 tsp allspice
- 1 tsp cinnamon
- .25 tsp cloves
- dash salt
- 1 cup butter
- 2 eggs
THE ICING
- 2 cups powdered sugar
- 1-2 tbsp milk of choice
Instructions
- Mix all of your dry ingredients in one large mixing bowl. (flour, cocoa, spices, baking soda).
- In separate bowl, cream butter and sugar on medium-high. Add milk, and incorporate.
- In batches, add dry mix to butter, alternating with eggs, beating on low until just incorporated. At some point, you will need to shut off the mixer and use your hands to complete the mixing.
- Lastly, add raisins, nuts and chocolate chips. Fold into dough to evenly distribute. Preheat oven to 375F.
- Begin rolling into small balls, about the circumference of a quarter. (Remember: they will almost double in size in the oven!) Place on greased cookie sheet, about an inch or more apart. Bake 10 minutes.
- When done, pull out and let cool on a separate tray. Make the icing by beating a little milk into powdered sugar until smooth, but not too runny.
- Once cookies are completely cooled, dip the tops into the bowl of icing, wiping off the excess, and place back down to set. Enjoy!
Notes
2 thoughts on “Chocolate Balls (Cookie Recipe)”
Comments are closed.
There is no baking powder? Do you mix the milk in the egg?
Oops! Forgot that instruction, sorry! You can mix the milk into the butter/sugar mixture. I just added it to the recipe card. There is no baking powder but the recipe does call for baking soda and that is instructed to be added to the dry mixture in the beginning. Hope that helps! š