2013 Cooking Club Week 18: Double Chocolate Cookies

Hi everyone My recipe for this cooking club is double chocolate chip cookies. These aren't your everyday chocolate cookies- they use real melted chocolate and are a seriously decadent treat! This is my go to chocolate cookie recipe.

50g unsalted butter (or normal salted butter and omit the 1/2 tsp salt)
225g dark chocolate, chopped or broken into squares
Approx. 225g filling of choice (chocolate chips, nuts, buttons, fudge chunks or chopped chocolate- whatever you like)
2 eggs
170g soft brown sugar
1/4 tsp vanilla extract
85g plain flour
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp baking powder

This will get you about 12 lovely, dense, chewy cookies.



Assemble your ingredients. I wanted white and milk chocolate chips but had to substitute buttons as there were no white chocolate chips in the supermarket.



… they were an absolute joy to remove from the bags. If you can get your hands on peanut butter or butterscotch chips (make an American friend or pay a visit to Fallon & Byrne!) they go extremely well in this recipe.

Chocolate wise- dark is good. I usually go for a mix of about 46% and 70%.

Preheat your oven to 170/Gas mark 3.

Sieve the flour, salt and baking powder together and set aside.

Mix the eggs, sugar and vanilla extract together with an electric mixer/whisk in a large bowl (you'll be adding the melted chocolate and flour, etc so make sure it's big enough).

Melt the chocolate and butter together- I like to use a bain marie for this. Set up a bowl above a saucepan of bubbling water but make sure there's no steam escaping- it will cause the melted chocolate to seize up and become unworkable. Alternatively you can use the microwave- zap it in 30 second bursts and be very careful not to let the mixture burn.





When the chocolate and butter have fully melted and are nice and glossy, remove from the heat.



Pour the chocolate/butter mixture into the egg/sugar/vanilla mixture and beat on a slow speed until fully mixed.



Add the flour/salt/baking powder in about 3 stages, stirring thoroughly.



Finally, add your fillings- chocolate chips etc, whatever you like! - and stir thoroughly.

Line your baking trays and spoon your cookie dough onto the tray. This is more like a runny batter than a dough so be careful that the cookies don't run into each other. You should get about 12 cookies.



Bake for 10-15 minutes until the cookies appear glossy and cracked. If you overbake them they will be hard and crispy- but that's not the end of the world, a quick zap in the microwave (15-20 seconds) will restore them to their chewy glory. I like them microwaved anyway! They go well when warmed with a scoop of ice cream.



Leave the cookies to cool on the tray before transferring to a wire rack (or directly to your mouth) to cool fully.



And enjoy!