“Your breath stinks like chocolate!”
Every bite of these chocolate laden discs is one of sheer pleasure
This was the exclamation from my brother after I’d consumed one of these chocolate chocolate-chip discs of doom, and he was absolutely right. Those who know me know that I’m not one of ‘those’ chocaholics - you know the ones, with noses tuned to the scent of cocoa beans, who can be found lurking in the dark corners of chocolatier stores with noses pressed against the glass of the truffle display, and who’d sell their mother’s right lung for a box of their most desired chocolates.
Which is kind of a shame if their mother had already donated the left one to the aforementioned chocaholic, when their own had to be removed due to excessive cocoa powder inhalation.
So, whilst I enjoy the odd bit of chocolate here and there, I often go weeks or months without a single morsel passing my lips.
At work last week, one of the girls was running around and distributing finger-like little slices of a chocolate cake which she was proudly telling everyone that she made herself. Never one to turn down cake, I accepted a slice and savoured the chocolatey smell that wafted towards me from the piece before I closed my eyes and placed it on my tongue.
And closed my mouth.
The look of absolute horror that passed over my face sent one of my coworkers into a body-wracking fit of laughter. She held onto my shoulder and asked if I was ok whilst being barely able to keep her body upright from the effort of laughing so hard. My eyes boggled, my mouth contorted into shapes not before seen on this planet, and I swear my nose flipped it’s lid for good measure.
That was, without a doubt, the worst piece of chocolate cake I had ever had in my life. Bar none.
Now, whilst I’m no chocolate fiend, when I do have it I want it to be of some level of quality - I’m not asking for ‘Maison Du Chocolate‘ quality (heck, who I am kidding? I could never expect that level of quality), and I’ve certainly been known to have my eyes roll back with pleasure after having a block of toblorone after a long drought from the stuff. This cake almost seemed too undercooked as it collapsed and glued my tongue to the roof of my mouth, had a very present grittiness in the icing, and had that chemically ’scent’ that comes from many ‘just add milk’ packet mixes. Not only was all this bad enough, but it tasted almost entirely of sugar, almost as if the cocoa or chocolate had been thrown in as an afterthought.
After such a bad chocolate experience, I had to make up for it by creating something delicious, if only to prove to myself that making decent baked chocolatey delights was not out of the realm of the home baker. I spent the night flipping through my cookbooks and finally decided that I’d make cookies, as muffins or cakes would not be devoured by my non-chocolate-lovin’ family.
I didn’t want to do things by halves, so I went for a fairly innocent recipe from my ‘Good Taste Collection: Baking” book (one of my best buys, $7 from the supermarket and not a single recipe has disappointed!). Labelled ‘rich chocolate chunk biscuits’, it certainly didn’t warn of the chocolatey-ness that would overwhelm your senses from eating just one of these unassuming brown discs.
These smooth, brown, heavy disks are dangerous - dangerously full of chocolate!
These cookies contain 400 grams of chocolate for just 25 cookies. That’s a lot of chocolate. A LOT. And yet, they are not sweet, just intensely chocolatey enough to send a buzz through your entire being. They are moist, soft and crumbly, and the perfect thing to satisfy a chocolate craving - I highly recommend you give them a try!
Chocaholic Cookies (adapted from ‘Good Taste Collection: Baking” book)
Ingredients
200g good quality dark chocolate, chopped
125g unsalted butter, at room temperature, cubed
60g brown sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
2 medium eggs
220g plain (all-purpose) flour
1/4 tsp baking powder
200g good quality chocolate chips
*Optional: 80g chopped nuts, walnuts or hazelnuts would work nicely here
1. Melt the chocolate bain-marie style, stirring occasionaly till melted and smooth. Set aside to slightly cool.
2. Beat together the butter, sugar and vanilla till just combined, then beat in the luke-warm chocolate. Add the eggs 1 at a time, beating well after each addition.
3. Sift the flour and baking powder, then slowly add to the chocolate mixture, mixing well with a wooden spoon after each addition. Add the choc chips (and nuts, if you’re using them) and mix till well combined.
4. Cover mixture with cling wrap and place in the fridge for 30 mins - 1 hour, till firm. Preheat oven to 160 degrees C.
5. Roll tablespoonfuls of mixture into balls and flatten slightly, and place 5 cm apart on a lined tray. Place bowl of mixture back in the fridge (and whenever not in immediate use) and bake tray for 15-18 minutes or till biscuits are mostly firm to the touch and slightly cracked on top.
6. Transfer to a wire rack to cool, and enjoy with a glass of cold milk. Stores in an airtight container for up to a week 
Technorati Tags: chocolate chip cookies, chocolate, cookies, baking
Others who have tried this recipe:
- Thanh at I Eat Therefore I Am
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Comments
Brilynn HA! You realize your coworker was clearly trying to poison you…
Did you bring in some of your amazing cookies to redeem bakers everywhere?
Ellie Kat - Make sure you try one of these once they have come straight out of the oven, I think this is when they are at their best as the chocolate chips are all gooey and melted and this adds another level of decadence
Paz - Hehehe, it certainly isn’t the worth kind of breath to have 
Brilynn - LOL!! She’s far too lovely a girl to do anything like that…but I think that she genuinely believes that she can cook/bake. Dear me. As for the cookies, I only work Wednesday-Friday, and I don’t know if I’ll have enough left by then to take in 
Doodles - Hehehe, that was my exact reaction when I had my first bite of this cookie!
ilingc you poor girl, nothing worse than a packet mix produce…(and they’re generally not bad because they’ve been tried and tested!) except when the maker doesn’t follow instructions properly.
may i suggest mixing it up with a bit of milk, dark and white choc? My boss makes a mean choco cookie with ingredients similar to yours but she mixes it up with all three kinds of choc.
Ellie Iling - I think I’m fairly sensitive to the chemicals in those mixes as I encounter them so rarely, but whenever I do I encounter a completely unnatural chemically ‘tang’ which is quite unappetizing to me 
As for the cookies, you’re spot on I didn’t clarify in the recipe as I know many people have preferences for their type of chocolate, but in mine I did actually use all three types of chips 
Lis It’s okay that I’ve licked my screen, yes? Will sooooooooo be trying these! For someone who isn’t a chocoholic, you sure pick excellent chocolate recipes my dear!
Emily two kinds of chocolate? double yum.
your stories never fail to make me smile - despite the momentary awfulness of cake, if it inspires you to make cookies like these, well, i for one consider it worthwhile for our common good.
Ellie Lis - Absolutely ok, just remember to give it a quick wipe with a tissue before you wonder why all the colours look pixellated and weird. Not that I’m speaking from experience or anything I may not be a chocaholic, but when I do chocolate, I like to do it well
Emily - Double yum sums it up! I thought these would be too rich for my family, but they’ve almost hoovered them all up! Glad I pleased - on the story and cookie front
Christine in California Can there ever be too much chocolate? Not in my lifetime! This sounds amazing, thanks for posting the recipe, I will certainly give it a try. I love the use of brown sugar, gives a deep rich flavor besides the sweetness alone.
Ellie Christine - LOL! There can never be too much, so long as you pace yourself They are pretty spesh but all gone now, so I’ll have to make them again I love the brown sugar too, I think it gives these a little extra depth!
Alysha I think I shouldn’t have peeked! I can’t even use the gram measurements as an excuse not to make these - my kitchen scale converts to grams!
Ellie Alysha - Hehehe, gotta love the wonders of modern technology My scales do the oz/gram conversion too, which means it’s hard to use the conversion hassle as an excuse not to try recipes Be warned though, while these taste good, they’re definetely not hip-friendly~!
I could actually smell the chocolate from that post! I’ll have to round up the ingredients, like the others, for this one and try it!