Chocolate Saturn Sugar Cookies

Ingredients:
1/3 cup cream
7 ounces dark chocolate, chopped into small pieces
3/4 cup sugar
1 recipe of sugar cookie dough or 1 (18-ounce) package sugar cookie dough

Preparing the cookies:
Place a small pan over medium heat. Add the cream and warm until almost boiling, about 3 minutes. Turn off the heat and add the chocolate. Stir for 1 to 2 minutes until the chocolate melts. Place the chocolate mixture into a small bowl. Cool the chocolate until firm enough to roll into balls. (To cool quickly, place the chocolate in the refrigerator for about 1 hour.)

Once the chocolate is firm, preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.

Place the sugar in an empty pie dish. Roll the chocolate into teaspoon-sized balls and set aside. Roll a walnut-sized ball of cookie dough into a thin log about 3 inches long. Place a chocolate ball on a work surface and wrap a cookie dough log around the chocolate ball and press to adhere. It should look like a cookie version of the planet Saturn. Roll the cookie in the sugar to coat. Place the cookie on a large baking sheet and continue forming the remaining cookies and rolling them in sugar. Once all the cookie balls are on the baking sheets, use the bottom of a drinking glass to flatten the cookies to about 1/4 inch thick.

Bake the cookies for 15 minutes. Transfer the cookies to a wire rack to cool, then serve.

Makes 40 cookies