Chocolate Espresso Cookies

Chocolate and coffee? In a cookie? Yes, your prayers have been answered. If you’re anything like me, you’d do everything short of inject coffee directly into your eyeballs, so these cookies are a lovely treat for the caffeine addicted people among you. These cookies are fairly easy to make, and are similar to the double chocolate cookie, but they pack a nicely caffeinated punch. Perfect for a coffee table treat for guests, party food, or hell, even breakfast.

Number of cookies totally depends on what size you go for, but rest assured this is a fairly generous recipe.

NB: I’ve been fiddling about with this recipe for a while now, and I am fairly convinced this is the best version, but if you have any suggestions, feel free to post in the comment box below!

You will need:

• 200g dark chocolate
• 200 g dark chocolate dark chocolate chips
• 120g butter, chopped into medium chunks
• 3 eggs
• 250g caster sugar
• 2 tbsp of espresso (if you don’t have any, just make some super strong coffee and measure out 2 tbsp of it)
• 120g all-purpose flour
• 1 tsp baking powder
• pinch of salt

What to do:

1. Where is your apron? If you’re not wearing it already, you’re doing something wrong.
2. Playlist – something hyper to go with the cookies. Katy Perry? Get it on. NB Miley Cyrus is not recommended for this one.
3. Preheat your oven to 180°c (350°F or gas mark 4) and grease two sizeable sizeable baking trays (or cookie sheets if you have them). I would use butter, but you can also use vegetable oil or Cake Release.
4. Place a pyrex or metal bowl set over a saucepan of simmering, and pop your chocolate (not the chocolate chips though!) and butter into the bowl. Stir until it all melts together and looks smooth. Remove from heat. NB sticking your finger in is HIGHLY tempting, but do be careful as melted chocolate tends to get rather hot.

5. 

   While the amazing chocolate combo cools, get out a new bowl and pop in the eggs, sugar, and coffee. Whisk with a handheld whisker on high speed until it is thick. You want the whiskers to leave ribbon-like trails of mixture when you lift them, so be patient if you’re not there yet. It does take a while. If you do not wait for this, your cookies will not be poofy enough (see photo).

6. Beat in the chocolate mixture. You now have permission to stick your finger in, but don’t say I didn’t warn you about salmonella.
7. When that’s all combined, sieve the flour, baking powder and salt into the mixture and stir in with a wooden spoon. When it’s combined, add the chocolate chips.
8. This sounds weird, but put the mix in the freezer for 20 minutes, or the fridge for an hour. Trust me. Again, failing this step could result in the cookie on the right. Disaster.
9. When the mix is cold and stiff (but not too frozen!) spoon out your cookies onto your pre-greased baking sheets about 2 inches apart and bake in the middle of your oven for 10 to 12 minutes. Keep an eye on them – you want them to be chewy but not so underdone they fall apart. Use your judgement wisely.
10. Whip ’em out of the oven and after a minute or so, transfer them to wire racks to cool.This is best done with a metal fish slice – be careful you don’t completely destroy the cookie in the process. Be very gentle, and ensure you place them flat on the wire racks. Piling them up will cause them to break apart, which is no fun for anyone.
11. Heap them up on a plate when they’re cold and serve. Om nom nom nom nom.

Enjoy!