Recipe: Chocoholic Cookies

These are cookies which I can claim very little—if any—credit for, since it's basically derived from Nigella Lawson's Totally Chocolate Chocolate Chip Cookies with just a few tweaks for my preferences (most notably using dark brown sugar & extra egg for the added fudginess & chewiness factor, and a splash more vanilla to balance out chocolate's intensity). But they are everything as Nigella promises and are, per her words, "the chocolatiest cookies you will ever come across."

And they are absolutely amazing a few minutes out of the oven, with the cookie in that crumbly, fudgy stage and the chips still molten and gooey.

As an added bonus, these cookies freeze & rebakes easily so that, being the chocolate fiend enthusiast that I am, I can batch freeze them and satisfy that call for cocoa any time I want afterwards.

Chocoholic Cookies
(yields about 30 3-inch cookies)
Ingredients:

• 8 ounces bittersweet chocolate, broken into small pieces (though I went a little over & basically used half of a Trader Joe's Pound Plus 72% dark chocolate bar)
• 2 sticks butter, softened
• 1 cup dark brown sugar, packed
• 1/2 cup white sugar
• 3 eggs
• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
• 2 teaspoons baking soda
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
• 3 cups dark chocolate chips (I used Fresh & Easy's bittersweet chips)

1. Preheat oven to 375 F
2. Gently melt the bittersweet chocolate (ideally in a double boiler setup); once completely melted, set aside.
3. Combine flour, salt, baking soda and cocoa powder and mix until even & free of lumps.
4. Beat together the butter, brown and white sugars until smooth. Then add egg and vanilla extract, mix until smooth again.
5. Drizzle in the melted chocolate and mix until the color is even.
6. Add the combined dry ingredients, a third at a time, and fold until it's a thick batter.
7. Add the chocolate chips and fold into the batter until they are also evenly distributed.
8. Scoop out heaping tablespoons (approximately golf ball sized) on to a parchment lined baking sheet.
9. Bake for approximately 18-21 minutes, depending on if you prefer a chewier or crunchier cookie. Let cool for 5 minutes and serve.
10. If freezing, scoop out on a tray or a plate and let them freeze individually. Once frozen, they can be stored in a bag or tupperware for future enjoyment (& add a little extra time when baking these.)