Extra-Chocolatey Cookies

When you've made lunch before breakfast and signed more school permission slips than a Hollywood star signs autographs on the red carpet. When you've sorted the laundry before you've brushed your teeth. When you've run 8kms before you've run all your errands . When you've planned, shopped for and half prepared the evening meal before eating lunch. I think it's time for an Extra-Chocolatey Cookie and coffee break. Whadoyareckon?


Extra-Chocolatey Cookies
from Adrian Richardson's The Good Life
Makes 12

200g dark chocolate, roughly chopped
200g milk chocolate, roughly chopped
110g unsalted butter at room temperature
120g brown sugar
1 egg
1 tsp vanilla extract
80g plain flour
35g cocoa
1 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
1/2 teaspoon salt

Melt 120g of the dark chocolate in a bowl set over a saucepan of simmering water. Leave to
cool to room temperature.

Preheat the oven to 160°C. Cream the butter and sugar with electric beaters until the
sugar has dissolved and the mixture is fluffy. Beat in the cooled melted chocolate, then the
egg and the vanilla.

Sift the flour, cocoa, bicarbonate of soda and salt into a separate bowl, then add to the
chocolate mixture and mix to a smooth dough. Stir in the remaining chopped dark and milk chocolate.
Use an ice cream scoop to measure out mounds and arrange on trays lined with baking paper, leaving plenty of space between the mounds as they spread while cooking. Press the mounds down with the back
of a fork and bake for about 18 minutes. Transfer to a wire rack to cool.