Hi everyone! Today I would like to share a recipe for chocolate drop cookies (pictured below) that has been passed down in my family for four generations. I used to love it when my grandma made these cookies for me, and I am happy I can make them myself now! This past Thursday (October 1st) was National Homemade Cookies Day, which inspired me to make this recipe this week.

So to start this recipe, you will want to cream together 1 cup of shortening (like Crisco) and 2 cups of brown sugar. While these are coming together, beat 2 eggs and melt 4 ounces of chocolate. The photo below shows the type of chocolate I like to use for this recipe (I use the whole bar).

Once the shortening/brown sugar mixture is creamed, you can add in the 2 beaten eggs, 4 ounces of melted chocolate, and 2 teaspoons of vanilla extract and continue to mix. While this is being blended, you will need to prepare 1/2 cup of sour milk. To do this, measure out 1/2 teaspoon of lemon juice, and pour into a liquid measuring cup. Then, pour milk into the cup with the lemon juice until you get 1/2 cup of liquid total. Allow the mixture to sit for at least 5 minutes before using to get the right level of acidity. Below is a picture of my sour milk after it sat for 5 minutes. You should be able to see some curds in the mixture.

While the milk is finishing its acidification, add 1 teaspoon of salt and 1 teaspoon of baking soda to the mixing bowl.

Now that the milk is ready, we can move on to the next step: adding the sour milk to the mixture alternately with 4 cups of flour. To do this, I added about a cup of flour and a little bit of the sour milk, mixed, and then repeated the step until all of the milk and flour had been added. The mixture should be pretty thick and sticky by the end.

Now that the dough is ready, preheat your oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. Drop the cookies by teaspoonfuls onto greased cookie sheets and bake them for 10-12 minutes. When I made this recipe this week, it yielded 48 cookies, but this could vary depending on how big you make your cookies.

While the cookies are cooling, you can make the frosting. To start, soften 1 stick of butter. Next, beat 4 cups of powdered sugar into the butter (bit by bit so that it doesn’t make a huge mess). When all the powdered sugar is incorporated, add in a pinch of salt, 2 teaspoons of vanilla extract, and 5 tablespoons of milk and mix until it is smooth and creamy. If you keep the bowl warm while mixing, it will be easier to get a smooth mixture.

The last step to completing these delicious cookies is to frosten them to your liking. If you like thick frosting, let the frosting cool a bit before putting it on the cookies. If you like a thinner frosting, warm it up before application. I like a thinner, runny frosting, so I kept mine warmer and spread it onto the cookies with a spoon, which is much easier than with a knife in my opinion. 😉

I hope that this recipe peaks your interest enough to try it out! Tune in next week for an all new recipe!