Chocolate cookies

I love chocolate cookies. I mean I LOOOVVVVEEE them! But, I’m fussy! They have to be dark chocolate (milk chocolate in a cookie? No way! Well not for me anyhow) and they have to be soft, melt in the mouth and just plain yummarge!
This recipe is for the best double chocolate chip cookies you will ever make. I’ve made them many times and even when they go wrong (like when I burnt the melting chocolate and just left it out of the ingredients) they still taste great. But with the melted chocolate included they are divine!

The last time I made them I was in a bit of a strop. I’d had a particularly stressful day. It was half term, my girls had trashed practically the whole house and the snowman I was making for an up and coming shoot was flopping big time which was making me really stressed out!
When I’m stressed I crave chocolate more than ever, so I decided to hit two stones with one bird (before you say it- I know, I always say that the wrong way round. I think it’s funny!) To chill out and relax I bake. It’s a simple remedy. Baking and creating something cheers me up and if it’s chocolate I get my sugar rush too! My sister popped round that evening and said I should be in a strop more often if it meant more cookies like this!

so, onto the recipe

The Ingredients for Double chocolate cookies

Makes around 20

• 400g dark chocolate
• 110g butter – at room temperature
• 130g light brown sugar
• 1 egg (medium)
• 1tsp vanilla extract
• 150g plain flour
• 30g cocoa powder
• 1tsp bicarbonate of soda

How to make double chocolate cookies

1. Preheat your oven to 170 C ( Fan 150C) Gas 3. Line a baking tray or two with grease proof paper and pop them in the fridge. This prevents the cookies baking too quickly on the bottom.
2. Take 150g of the chocolate and melt it in a heat proof bowl placed over boiling water. Make sure that the boiling water doesn’t touch the bowl or the chocolate will burn (trust me on this! Been there. Done that!) Once melted set aside to cool a little.
3. Roughly chop the remaining chocolate. You can use chocolate chips but the oozing won’t be quite as big!
4. Mix the butter and sugar together until pale and fluffy.Add the egg and mix again adding spoonful of flour if it starts to separate. Add the vanilla essence.Stir in the flour, bicarbonate of soda  and cocoa powder.
5. Add the melted chocolate and stir through. Mix in the roughly chopped chocolate pieces.
   Use a  dessert spoon to measure out equal measurements of dough (it will be a bit sticky) and roll it into a ball, place it on the baking sheet, leaving space for spreading between each one. Flatten slightly with your fingers.Pop them in the oven for 10 minutes and not a second longer. Then place them on a rack to cool down.
6. Now this is where it all goes wrong for me! All that roughly chopped chocolate is all melted and gooey and if you break a cookie in half it should be too moist for you to be able to resist eating it. I have normally eaten a few before they have cooled down completely. This is my favorite time to eat them. Fresh out of the oven!
7. They will last a day or two in an air tight container but I think they taste best eaten on the day of baking. They stay moist even once they have cooled down completely.
8. Who can resist gooey chocolate like this? Not me!

enjoy!