Chicago, IL –

Recipe here, story below. I always hate when they make you scroll to get to the goods. If anyone cares how I found this one (or how the cookies turned out) it’ll be below:

DEVIL’S FOOD DROP COOKIES

• 1/2 cup butter
• 1 cup brown sugar, packed
• 1 egg
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 2 ounces unsweetened chocolate, melted and cooled
• 2 cups sifted all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 3/4 cup sour cream or Greek yogurt
• 1/2 cup chopped walnuts (optional)

Cream butter & sugar until fluffy, add egg and vanilla and cooled chocolate. Whisk dry ingredients and add, alternating with sour cream. Mix until combined, use teaspoon to portion and bake in 350 oven for 9-10 minutes.

A few weeks back, my wife and I found ourselves driving from Chicago to Adrian, MI to go see my nephew graduate from High School. After all of the lockdowns and restrictions of the last year, it was nice to be able to go visit family and not be worried that someone would end up sick just because we wanted to have a party. We decided to stop along the way at Fables Books, just to see how they were getting on and if our admiration from afar was well placed. Turns out, it totally was.

The ladies running the store couldn’t have been nicer, and the space itself is really large and airy for a used bookstore. While their cookbook section could be a little deeper (only 10 shelves? psh) I did find the above little gem hiding in the stacks. I’m not certain what date this might be from, but my best guess is 1958-ish. There are a few old legacy phone numbers still listed in there (KE-5034), and one business has the new (at the time) 7 digit phone system that we’re all familiar with. So our best guess is this was made sometime in the late 1950s.

Its absolutely chock full of the kind of mid-century Midwestern cuisine that is really tough to find anymore. Being a baker, of course I started with the cookies. These little Devil’s Food Drop Cookies are sublime. They are cakey and soft, almost like a bite of brownie or cake, with a strong chocolate flavor that is offset nicely by the richness of the butter. The only thing that’s even remotely challenging with this recipe is the melting chocolate and most microwaves will do that for you in about 30 seconds (two 15 second blasts generally does it for me).

These are great week-night cookies as the whole thing took about an hour from start to finish. A word of caution – the melted chocolate will get everywhere, no matter how careful you think you’re being. My wife found some on my glasses the next day, in fact. So those with little kids might want to keep them out of the kitchen for this one.

Let us know if you tried them, or if you have a killer cookie recipe to share post below. Thanks for stopping by and have a nice day!

DW