When I was a kid, grandma baked chocolate ammonia cookies every Christmas. She called them “poison cookies.” I’ve been talking a lot about these cookies lately, and I  get the same response from everyone. “Did you just say ammonia?!”

Yes, real ammonia. It was apparently used in a lot of old world cooking. You know… the kind of cooking grandmas do. And interestingly is also used for smelling salts. The ammonia functions a a leavening agent. As you bake the cookies the ammonia bubbles up, releasing gas, and creating the necessary leavening effect. Your house will smell like ammonia while cooking… it’s sort of a weird cleaning/baking combo. I’m sure I’m not convincing you to make these cookies with this sales pitch, but I promise, they’re good. The baking process deactivates the ammonia, and the cookies are totally safe to eat. And delicious. They are a bit crunchy and kind of taste like hot cocoa.

Just whatever you do… DON’T EAT THE RAW COOKIE DOUGH!

These old recipes are kind of hilarious, they don’t actually give many instructions for how to make the cookies… because clearly we all should know what to do…. clearly. Here’s what I did, and they seemed to turn out right.

I didn’t have chocolate baking squares, so I improvised with chips. No big deal. We have a scale and I assumed each square was meant to be an ounce of chocolate.

Cream the butter and sugar together. Add the vanilla.

Melt the chocolate. I use the microwave. About 30 seconds, stir, another 30 seconds, stir, and then maybe another 15-20 seconds.

In a separate bowl, combine the flour, salt, and ammonia. Slowly combine in the mixer so that the flour doesn’t go flying and make a mess of your kitchen.

Shape the dough into small one inch balls. If you make the cookies too big they won’t get the right consistency and the leavening won’t work exactly right. Place a walnut in the center of each ball.

Bake in a pre-heated oven at 350 degrees for 13-14 minutes.

 

CHOCOLATE AMMONIA COOKIES

1 1/2 C. Butter

2 C. Sugar

4 Squares Melted Chocolate

1 tsp. Vanilla

3 C. Flour

2 tsp. crushed Carbonate of Ammonia

1/2 tsp. Salt

Shape in balls. Place nut on top. Press. Bake in slow oven 12-15 minutes (325 – 350 degrees).