Triple Chocolate Fudge Cookies

You know it's a good day when you accomplish all the things you set out to achieve and at the end of it, there's coffee and cookies.

Triple Chocolate Fudge Cookies
from Valli Little's Delicious: Simply the Best
Makes 36 large cookies

250g unsalted butter
165g caster sugar
185g brown sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 egg
300g plain flour, sifted
25g cocoa, sifted
1 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
40g chopped roasted hazelnuts
a good pinch of salt
250g dark chocolate, chopped
150g white chocolate, chopped

Preheat the oven to 180 degrees C. Line a baking sheet with baking paper.

Place the butter, caster sugar, brown sugar and vanilla extract in the bowl of an electric mixer and beat until thick and pale. Add the egg and beat until well combined. Sift the flour, cocoa and bicarbonate of soda, then stir in the hazelnuts, 220g of the dark chocolate and 120g of the white chocolate. Roll the dough into walnut-size balls.* Arrange them on the baking sheet 5cm apart. You'll have to cook them in batches if you are baking all 36. Slightly flatten each ball with your hand, then bake for 12 minutes or until just dry on the surface. Allow to cool on the baking sheet until slightly firm (about 5 minutes), then transfer onto a wire rack to cool completely.

Melt the reserved 30g dark chocolate in a heatproof bowl set over a pan of simmering water (don't let the bowl touch the water). Stir until melted, then drizzle over the cookies. Repeat with the remaining 30g white chocolate. Cool until chocolate sets.

Note:* You can freeze the balls at this stage if you don't want to bake all 36 cookies. (In my experience, it's not a good idea to have 36 of these delicious cookies sitting in your cookie jar unless you have 34 people around to help you eat them - one for you, one for each of them and one for you for when every one has left.) To freeze them, place the balls onto a baking tray and put them in the freezer until frozen. Take them out of the freezer and place them in a zip-lock bag. Put them back in the freezer until you want to bake them. To bake them, simply take out as many as you want to bake, place them on a baking paper lined baking sheet and bake at 180 degrees C for about 15-18 minutes from frozen.