These are a pure chocolate hit in cookie form. I found the recipe in the Hummingbird bakery cookbook and have been making them regularly for the past five years. They have been requested in place of a birthday cake by my stepchildren and are quite special enough to be made for adults, even the most discerning.
The most astonishing thing about this recipe is the proportion of ingredients – 450g of chocolate to just 85g flour!! – so your choice of chocolate is critical. I used Lindt 70% ‘intense’ dark chocolate and it was almost too dark for my liking. Next time I’ll use the non-intense version! That said, I had no complaints and the entire batch were snaffled in next to no time.
The final choice you need to make is whether to use just a little salt to balance the sweetness or a bit more so that it comes through and gives the cookie more character.
Ingredients
- 50 g unsalted butter
- 225 g dark chocolate
- 225 g dark chocolate chips (or chopped dark chocolate if you can be bothered – I can’t)
- 2 eggs
- 170 g light muscovado sugar
- 85 g plain flour
- 1/4 tsp salt (increase to 1/2 tsp if you like a salty tang – it makes them seem even more chocolatey and grown-up)
- 1/2 tsp baking powder
Makes 18 cookies using an ice cream scoop
Method
Switch oven on to 170°C
Melt the butter and the dark chocolate (not the chocolate chips) together.
Beat together the eggs, sugar and vanilla extract – a freestanding electric mixer with a paddle attachment is ideal for this. Then pour in the chocolate mixture and mix until combined.
Sieve the flour, baking powder and salt into a separate bowl. Add it to the rest of the mixture in three goes, mixing gently after each addition.
Then add the chocolate chips and stir them in. Your batter is ready so it’s time to put spoonfuls onto lined baking sheets – I use a spring release ice cream scoop but little mounds made with a teaspoon will do just as well – and put them in the oven to bake.
Leave in the oven for 10-12 minutes, until the tops are crackled and a uniform colour (when the middles are a darker colour, the cookie batter is still raw).
Let the cookies cool completely, as they tend to fall apart when they are warm. Keep them in an airtight container.