Crinkles

INSTRUCTIONS

• 1
  Roughly chop the cranberries and soak them in rum. If you can do this a few hours in advance, do so.
• 2
  Measure butter and chocolate into a double boiler and let them melt slowly. The slower, the better; in the meantime, you still have a lot to do, so don't burn the chocolate due to insufficient attention while stirring. Alternatively, you can melt it without a double boiler, but on the lowest heat setting, and be ready to stir the chocolate a little at any moment.
• 3
  Whisk eggs and granulated sugar into a thick, light foam that drips in strands from the whisk and briefly stays on the surface of the foam. Whisking with a stand mixer or hand mixer takes about 5 minutes; by hand, at least twice as long.
• 4
  Whisk the flour with baking soda and salt. Fold the macerated cranberries, including any remaining, unabsorbed alcohol, into the melted chocolate in several batches. Slowly pour the melted chocolate in a thin stream into the egg foam, continuously whisking at the lowest speed; everything will combine easily this way. Finally, fold in the flour spoon by spoon in the same manner.
• 5
  Cover the resulting dough, which is too thin to resemble any cookie dough, with cling film to prevent drying and refrigerate for at least 2 hours. Due to its high chocolate content, it will firm up to a workable consistency.
• 6
  Start preheating the oven to 160 degrees Celsius. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper. Prepare both sugars for coating separately in two bowls or deep plates.
• 7
  Using a spoon, scoop out pieces of the firm dough, roughly slightly larger than a hazelnut, and let them drop into the granulated sugar. Coat them, then lightly roll them into a shape that at least somewhat resembles a ball about 2 cm in size, and drop them into the powdered sugar. Coat thoroughly on all sides. Arrange these coated balls on the baking sheet with at least 5 cm spacing; they will spread quite a bit during baking and need space. You can fit about 15-20 pieces on one baking sheet, which should be roughly a third to a quarter of the batch, depending on how large you make the balls.
• 8
  Place the first prepared baking sheet into the oven and bake for 10 minutes. The baked cookies will be suspiciously soft in the middle, but if you lightly press them with a finger and create a small indentation, it will slowly spring back. If you overbake them, you will lose a large part of the enjoyment.
• 9
  While the first baking sheet bakes, you will have time to prepare the next one. And so on, until all the dough is used.
• 10
  Let the baked cookies rest on the baking sheet for a minute, but then quickly transfer them to a wire rack to cool.