Festive Cocoa Cards

These oversize chocolate cookies double as edible greeting cards. The dough rolls out into one big sheet, gets cut into 3-by-5-inch rectangles, and bakes into flat, firm cookies that are the perfect canvas for piped frosting messages.

Molasses and cocoa powder give these a deep, dark flavor that’s somewhere between a gingerbread cookie and a brownie. The dough is rich with a full cup of butter creamed with sugar, and the molasses keeps the baked cookies soft enough to eat while firm enough to hold their shape for decorating.

Chilling the dough for an hour is essential. Without it, the butter softens too much and the dough sticks to the rolling surface and stretches out of shape when you transfer the rectangles to the baking sheet.

Pro Tips

• Roll the dough on a lightly floured surface to an even thickness for uniform cookies
• Use a ruler and a sharp knife or pizza cutter for clean, straight card edges
• Bake until firm to the touch, not until crispy. These should stay slightly soft in the center
• Let them cool completely on the baking sheet before decorating, otherwise the frosting melts

Variations

• Use royal icing instead of premade frosting for sharper lettering and faster drying
• Punch a small hole before baking and thread ribbon through for edible gift tags
• Swap molasses for dark corn syrup for a milder, less spiced flavor