FLOURLESS FUDGE COOKIES

This is a recipe from King Arthur Flour.

• 2 1/4 cups confectioners' sugar
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon espresso powder, optional but good
• 1 cup cocoa powder, Dutch-process (European-style) preferred*
• 3 large egg whites
• 2 teaspoons gluten-free vanilla extract
• *For darker, richer-looking cookies, substitute 1/4 cup black cocoa for 1/4 cup of the Dutch-process cocoa

1) Preheat the oven to 350°F. Lightly grease two baking sheets. Or line with parchment, and grease the parchment.

2) Stir together all of the ingredients till smooth. Scrape the bottom and sides of the bowl, and stir again till smooth.

3) Drop the soft, batter-like dough onto the prepared baking sheets in 1 1/2" circles; a tablespoon cookie scoop works well here.

4) Bake the cookies for 8 minutes; they should spread, become somewhat shiny, and develop faintly crackly tops.

5) Remove the cookies from the oven, and allow them to cool right on the pan.

6) Yield: 16 large (3") cookies.

tips from our bakers

• Want to make more, smaller cookies? Drop the dough in 1 1/8" balls (about 2 measuring teaspoonfuls) onto the baking sheets; a level teaspoon cookie scoop works well here. You'll make about forty 2 1/4" cookies.
• Add up to 2 cups of chocolate chips or diced walnuts to the batter. You'll lose the cookies' "no added fat" attribute, but make some very tasty cookies. With 2 cups of add-ins, you'll make about 24 large cookies, or 48 smaller cookies. Note: For larger cookies with add-ins, increase the baking time by 2 minutes, to a total of 10 minutes.