Cookie Sticks

Cookie Sticks 1 cup butter softened to room temperature 3/4 cups sugar 1 tsp vanilla extract 1/2 tsp salt 1 egg 2 2/3 cups flour 1/2 cup mini chocolate chips 1/2 cup turbinado or coarse sugar 12 oz melting chocolate I use Ghirardelli dark chocolate melting wafers cup Sprinkles about 1/4-1/2 Preheat oven to 375F. In KitchenAid mixer or with electric hand-mixer beat your butter until well-creamed. Add sugar and beat together until light and fluffy. Stir in vanilla extract and salt, stirring until well-combined, and scrape down the sides of the bowl using a rubber spatula to ensure ingredients are well-incorporated. Add egg and beat until combined (pausing again to scrape down sides of bowl). With mixer on medium-low speed, gradually add flour until well-incorporated (you will definitely need to scrape down the sides and the bottom of the bowl several times for this, as the mixture is fairly dry and crumbs tend to settle at the bottom of the bowl) and dough begins to clump together. Stir in mini chocolate chips. Transfer dough to clean, lightly floured surface and use your hands to form it into a cohesive ball. Pour your sugar into a shallow dish (I used a plate for ease of rolling) and set nearby. Break off about 1 Tbsp of cookie dough and roll it into a tight, smooth ball. Lightly flour your hands and, using your palms (not your fingers or the sticks will be lumpy) gently roll the dough out until it is about 6" long. Briefly roll your cookie "stick" in the coarse sugar, and transfer to a parchment paper-lined cookie sheet. Make sure the stick is as straight as possible. Once you have filled up your cookie sheet (spacing cookies at least 1/2" apart), transfer to your freezer and freeze for 15 minutes. Bake at 375 for 10 minutes (do not place any subsequent batches of dough on hot pans, or they will melt and spread). Allow cookies to cool completely before dipping in chocolate. Once cookies are cooled, prepare your chocolate by melting according to package directions. You can now either use a spoon to pour chocolate over half of the cookie, or if you have a small glass you can transfer the chocolate to the glass and dip the cookie sticks directly into the glass. Transfer to wax-paper lined cookie sheet or cooling rack with wax paper underneath (for easy clean up) and immediately cover with sprinkles. Allow chocolate to cool and harden before serving.