Chocolate Chip Cookies w/ a "Sugar Cookie Twist"!

This evening we had leftover Spicy Beef & Cabbage Soup for dinner. It was another chilly day here today, starting off with temps in the low 20s and not getting above the 40s. It was a nice evening to have soup for dinner. This past weekend I made a batch of my Chocolate Chip Cookies w/ Walnuts but only baked half of the dough (and made 1 dozen medium sized cookies with). I covered and refrigerated the remaining half of dough to bake later on in the week...and that "later" was this evening! Using the remaining half of dough, I made 15 small cookies. I wanted to play around and experiment a little with something I had been pondering.

I wondered how they would turn out if I sort of made a cross between chocolate chip cookies and sugar cookies. Since the dough had been refrigerated for days, it was nice and stiff and easy to roll up into nice neat little "cookie balls". I rolled them by hand into 15 small balls. I then rolled each little cookie dough ball around in a small bowl containing about 2 tablespoons of granular Swerve Sweetener until they were evenly coated. I placed them on a foil lined cookie sheet and used a small fork to lightly press the tops with a crisscross pattern (similar to making peanut butter cookies). I dipped the fork into the granular sweeetener after crisscrossing each cookie. I popped them into a 350 degree F oven and baked them for 15-18 minutes (mine took 18 minutes). I taste-tested them warm, almost cooled, and then again after they were completely cooled. They tasted good at each stage...however, just like I had hoped would happen...when the cookies cooled completely, the Swerve coating that appeared to just melt into the cookies as they baked, actually crisped up as the cookies cooled. Not like a crunchy/gritty kind of crisp...but more like a very thin delicate crisp sugar coating; a glaze of sorts. I really liked the consistency and it didn't make the cookies overly sweet either.

Chilling the dough ahead of time made the cookies easier to work with and roll into balls. I will definitely make them this way again and liked baking half of the dough one day and saving the rest to bake later on. It was nice making the dough to use more than once and then enjoying the convenience of just whipping it out of the fridge on a weeknight or whenever you want to make a quick batch of homemade cookies and enjoy them warm from the oven. I snapped a few photos below. To make them the way I did here, simply chill the dough and roll it up into small cookie dough balls and then roll in granular sweetener, press lightly with a fork and bake, per the recipe. Cool completely to lightly crisp the exterior of the cookies. The link to the recipe for the basic chocolate chip cookies is here: ---->  Chocolate Chip Cookies w/ Walnuts. Enjoy!

Is it a chocolate chip cookie or a sugar cookie?

Crisscross pressed with a "Swerve-dipped" fork

Fresh out of the oven