The Ultimate {Double} Chocolate Cookies

In our family we've tried a lot of different cookie recipes, all of them claiming to be delicious, and most of them were. But when we found this recipe, it made the best cookies yet! They are richly chocolatey, not over sweet but not bitter either. Texture-wise, they are perfect too: just chewy at the edges, then almost gooey at the centre, even when they're cooled and have been stored for a day. They are so satisfying, yet so more-ish. Guests love them! My younger sister and I have never made any other chocolate cookie recipe since.

I've got a bit of a confession behind this particular batch of cookies. They are not the best I've ever made. You see I wanted to make these cookies so badly that even though we only had caster sugar (and the recipe uses soft brown sugar) I made them anyway. And I didn't use chocolate chunks (we had none of those either.) So although they looked nice, they were, to put it mildly, crisp. Lesson learned: use the right sugar (duh me!) and get the chocolate chunks. These cookies are worth it!  

The Ultimate {Double} Chocolate Cookies
Makes around 20 cookies

125g soft butter
275g brown sugar
1 egg
150g plain flour
35g self-raising flour
1/2 tsp bicarbonate of soda
35g good-quality cocoa powder
150g roughly chopped chocolate
or instead the same amount of m&m’s/peanut m&m's/smarties

•   Preheat the oven to 180'C/160'C fan-forced, and line two baking trays with greaseproof paper.
•   In a large bowl, beat together the butter, sugar and egg with an electric mixer until smooth. Weigh out the dry ingredients and mix them together, then sift into the butter, sugar and egg and mix to combine. Lastly mix in the chocolate.
•   Roll tablespoonfuls of the mixture into balls on the tray, allowing about 5cm space for the mixture to spread. Bake for about 10 minutes. It is important to leave them on the tray for 5 minutes afterwards before you transfer them to a wire rack to cool. 
•   Cookies can be stored in an airtight container for a couple of days... if they last that long!