Nigella's triple chocolate cookies

The husband came back one day after a conference at some fancy hotel and kept raving about the double chocolate cookies they served with tea. I didn't really care for it much, since I don't have the hots for chocolate. A couple of days later he brought home some chocolate cookies which he claimed came close to those he had, but still not there yet.

It lay on my kitchen counter till one day I got back after my swimming session so totally hungry and since there was nothing in the house I could eat (without preparation) I opened one cookie packet (they came in individual tiny packs) and popped into my mouth.

It tasted good, not divine or absolutely awesome, but good. I thought, why not make some for Ro since he keeps begging for chocolatey things all the time. I scouted around the net for a while and landed on Nigella's recipe. Its weird that I say this, but somehow all Nigella's chocolate based recipes have turned out pretty decent for me. This one didn't fail me either. It was as chocolately as Ro wanted and disappeared in 2 days, like I wanted, win-win situation if u ask me.

I love any kinda cookie straight out of the oven and after that don't really care for it that much. This too made its way through to my stomach immediately after it was taken out of the oven and after that it was all left for Ro. Its not the crunchy cookies, its more like a cakey, slightly chewy cookies which are so easy to make and as per Nigella, you can even freeze the dough for later use. She says you get 12 large cookies out of the measurements, but I halved it and made smaller cookies which are much easier to handle. Feel free to double it and make huge chunky cookies if you please.

On another note, I'm thoroughly enjoying my time at home doing absolutely nothing. Tried to bake some cupcakes but i seriously had no patience. Hats off to you guys in India who manage to bake well. I hated the fact that there was no brown sugar available, no ready made confectioners sugar, hated the heat which caused the frosting melt etc...wayy too much trouble to go through for a batch of cake. So I just decided it I shall never be baking if at all I get back to India. The convenience of UK has spoilt me, there I said it.. :)
Hope you all have a fabulous New Year with your loved ones. I will NOT be spending NYE with the husband this year, instead we are heading to two different parties. What fun :)

Recipe halved from here

Dark chocolate- 62 gms

Plain flour- 75 gms 

Cocoa powder- 15 gms

Baking soda- 1/2 tsp

Salt- 1/4 tsp

Butter- 62 gms (softened)

Dark brown sugar- 38 gms

Caster sugar- 25 gms

Vanilla extract- 1/2 tsp

Egg- 1 small

Dark chocolate chips- 125 gms

Break the dark chocolate into smaller pieces and melt in a double boiler or in a heat proof bowl kept over simmering water.

Keep stirring till the chocolate has completely melted. Keep aside to cool a bit.

Meanwhile, whisk together the flour, cocoa powder, baking soda and salt in a large bowl.

Into another bowl add the butter and cream it along with both the sugars till light and fluffy. A good wire whisk would do the job with a bit of an effort.

Pour in the melted chocolate and stir well to combine evenly.

In goes the vanilla extract and egg and beat it in to combine well.

Tip in the dry ingredients and using a wooden spoon combine well, making sure there are no traces of flour seen.

Finally fold in the chocolate chips.

Line a baking tray with parchment paper and using an ice cream scoop, scoop out the dough and place at least 2 inches apart. (if you are making large ones, you would get about 6 of them).

Bake in an oven pre heated at 170C for about 10 minutes. 

Get a tooth pick and gently insert it into the centre of a cookie, if it comes out clean (without any wet batter sticking to it) then you are good to go. If you have accidentally punctured a chocolate chip, then try again in another part of the cookie.

leave to cool for about 5 minutes on the tray and then transfer to a rack and cool completely before storing in containers.

Notes: The original recipe called for about 175 gms of chocolate chips, but I thought that was a tad too much, although next time I may try it out that way.

As per Nigella, make the dough as per instructions, scoop them into the baking tray as mentioned above and freeze just so they become hard enough. Then remove them from the tray, transfer to freezer bags and stash it back into the freezer till you are ready to use. I guess you can then bake directly from frozen, just that it might take a tad longer than usual.

Add some raspberry liqueur to the dough and I'm thinking it would be heavenly, or all spice for that matter.

Replace caster sugar with granulated sugar, I don't see that much of a problem there.

Kept them out for Santa on Christmas Eve and there was none left. He definitely loved these with his glass of milk, I hope you do too :)
Sending these to Forever Nigella: #10 Christmas Presence hosted by the lovely Sarah of Maison Cupcake