TOTALLY CHOCOLATE CHOCOLATE CHIP COOKIES

TOTALLY CHOCOLATE CHOCOLATE CHIP COOKIES

"Along with chocolate, there is much comfort to be gleaned from reading cookbooks. This recipe combines two loves by being chocolatey to the point of madness and having revealed itself to me after a cosy, snuggled-down read of Elinor Klivans' glorious Big Fat Cookies. What I do is make up the full batch of these (hard to divide it really, since it contains only 1 egg) and form all 12 cookies, but bake only half and freeze the other half. I freeze them on a little tray and, once they're hard, I bung them in a freezer bag, seal it and stash it back in the freeze, to bake them unthawed at a later date. That way, I've got 6 chocolate cookies to keep me and my family happy without any time or effort.

This is what I call an investment. And it's worth it - these are the chocolatiest cookies you will ever come across."

- Nigella Lawson

Ingredients

125g dark chocolate, minimum 70% cocoa solids

150g flour

30g cocoa, sieved

1 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

125g soft butter

75g light brown sugar

50g white sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 egg, cold from the fridge

350g (2 bags) semi-sweet chocolate morsels or dark chocolate chips

Method

Serves: Makes 12

Preheat the oven to 170°C/gas mark 3.

Melt the 125g dark chocolate either in the microwave or in a heatproof dish over a pan of simmering water.

Put the flour, cocoa, bicarbonate of soda and salt into a bowl.

Cream the butter and sugars in another bowl. (I use my freestanding mixer, itself an odd source of comfort to me.) Add the melted chocolate and mix together.

Beat in the vanilla extract and cold egg, and then mix in the dry ingredients. Finally stir in the chocolate morsels or chips.

Scoop out 12 equal-sized mounds - an ice cream scoop and a palette knife are the best tools for the job - and place on a lined baking sheet about 6cm apart. Do not flatten them.

Cook for 18 minutes, testing with a cake tester to make sure it comes out semi-clean and not wet with cake batter. If you pierce a chocolate chip, try again.

Leave to cool slightly on the baking sheet for 4-5 minutes, then transfer them to a cooling rack to harden as they cool.