Lavalicious Chocolate Cookie

Chocolate comes from a fruit called a pod that grows on the cacao tree. A seedling tree generally must mature for five years before it produces pods, with peak pod production happening at 10 years. A cocoa tree can bear fruit and produce pods for 30 to 40 years. Each pod is similar in size to a football, and contains up to 50 cocoa beans. To make one ounce of milk chocolate, it takes 4 cocoa beans, and one ounce of dark chocolate requires 12 beans. An average American or Canadian will consume about 12 pounds of chocolate per year. However, the Swiss are the world’s largest consumers of chocolate, eating about 22 pounds of chocolate per person per year!

Chocolate can be bittersweet, and we don’t mean literally. Although chocolate has many benefits to your health, some facts about how chocolate is made may make you want to munch on a different snack, or at least lower your chocolate intake.

Ingredients

1 1/3 cups all-purpose flour
1 cup sugar
1/3 cup packed brown sugar
1/2 cup cocoa
1 tsp. baking powder
1/4 tsp. salt
1/4 cup melted butter
3 large beaten egg whites
1 tsp. vanilla
5 tbs. icing sugar

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degree F.

2. In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, sugars, cocoa, baking powder and salt.

3. Stir in the butter until the mixture is well combined and crumbly.

4. Add egg whites and vanilla and stir until the dough just comes together.

5. Place the icing sugar into a shallow dish.

6. Roll the dough into small balls and coat the balls in icing sugar.

7. Place the cookies on a well greased cookie sheet. Using a spoon, flatten the cookies a bit.

8. Bake for 12 - 14 minutes, until just set around the edges; the cookies should be soft in the middle.