Fudgy Chocolate Brownie Cookies

Ingredients

• 150 g (5¼ oz) dark chocolate (55-70% cocoa solids), chopped
• 70 g (½ stick + 1 tbsp) unsalted butter
• 150 g (¾ cup) caster/superfine or granulated sugar
• 2 US large/UK medium eggs, room temperature
• 30 g (⅓ cup) Dutch processed cocoa powder
• ¼ tsp salt
• 60-90 g (⅓-½ cup) chocolate chips or chopped chocolate (You can use dark, milk or white chocolate – I used dark chocolate here.)

Method

1. Adjust the oven rack to the middle position, preheat the oven to 350ºF (180ºC) and line two large baking sheets with parchment/baking paper.
2. It’s best to scoop all the cookies onto the lined baking sheets at once, so make sure you have them ready on hand. This recipe makes 16 cookies, which should fit comfortably onto two large baking sheets.
3. In a heat-proof bowl (either in the microwave or on the stove over a pot of simmering water), melt the chocolate and butter together until smooth and glossy. Set aside to cool until lukewarm.
4. Using either a stand mixer fitted with the whisk attachment or a hand mixer fitted with the double beaters, whisk the sugar and eggs together until pale, very fluffy and about tripled in volume. This should take about 4-6 minutes on a high speed setting.Tip: This is known as the “ribbon stage” – when you lift the whisk out of the mixture, the batter should fall in thick trails, and leave a “ribbon” on top of the mixture for a second or two before it disappears into the bulk.
5. Pour the lukewarm chocolate mixture into the whisked egg mixture, and whisk until combined.
6. Sift in the cocoa powder and salt, and whisk until you get a smooth, glossy batter – it will be quite runny.Tip: At this stage, the batter will be loose and runny – more like brownie batter and nowhere near as thick as, for example, chocolate chip cookie dough. That’s exactly as it should be.
7. Add the chocolate chips (or chopped chocolate) and mix until they’re evenly distributed throughout the batter.
8. Chill the batter in the fridge for 6-8 minutes or until slightly thickened. It will still be fairly loose, but it should roughly hold its shape when you scoop out the individual cookies (see blog post for photos).Tip: This short chilling time prevents the cookies from spreading out too much in the oven.
9. Use a 2-tablespoon ice cream or cookie scoop to portion out the cookies. Make sure to leave enough space (at least 1½ inches/4cm) between them as they will spread out slightly during baking.Scoop out all the cookies at once. You should get 16 cookies in total, which should easily fit onto the two lined baking sheets (with 8 cookies per baking sheet).
10. Bake, one baking sheet at a time, at 350ºF (180ºC) for 8-9 minutes or until slightly puffed up. They will have a glossy, cracked crust. Immediately out of the oven, they will be fairly puffed up into rounded mounds, but they will settle and collapse during cooling.Directly out of the oven, while they’re still very hot, you can use a round cookie cutter (larger than the cookie diameter) to nudge or scoot the cookies into a more perfectly round shape.Tip 1: When you take the cookies out of the oven, their centres should be slightly underbaked – that way, they will be perfectly fudgy and gooey even after they’ve cooled to room temperature.Tip 2: While the first batch of cookies is in the oven, leave the other baking sheet on the counter at room temperature – don’t keep it in the fridge.
11. Allow the cookies to cool on the baking sheet for at least 10 minutes before transferring them onto a wire rack to cool completely. You can serve them warm or at room temperature.

Storage

1. The chocolate brownie cookies keep well in a closed, air-tight container in a cool dry place for 4-5 days.