Chewy Chocolate Brownie Cookies

I had a major craving for something really chocolatey a few days back, so I went to re-bake these cookies. I forgot how awesome these cookies are: they are so chocolatey, sweet, chewy, soft and delicious. My whole house smelt like a chocolate factory while baking them - these cookies are that chocolatey!

This recipe is very similar to a brownie recipe - lots of dark chocolate and very little flour. Not a typical cookie recipe, but hey - I'm not complaining because I got the best of both three worlds - cookies, brownies and chocolate! (And thus, I renamed this recipe to have the word "brownie" in them.)

This recipe ain't hard to make, but good quality dark chocolate is a must - use the best chocolate you can afford (I used Belcolade, but I want to try using Valrhona the next time I made this).

Taste wise, I would reduce the amount of sugar in these cookies even further - as though I really love these cookies, it's a bit too sweet for me to eat more than two (sugar-overload!) /:

The sides of the cookies are chewy, but the middle remain soft and have the texture of a brownie. I love soft cookies, so these cookies really hit the spot.

Oh well, guess I'll diet for the next few days... haha. On to the recipe!

Chewy Chocolate Brownie Cookies (makes about 24)

adapted from 500 Cookies by Philippa Vanstone

Place the dark chocolate and butter in a heatproof bowl. Set the bowl over a pot of simmering hot water, but do not let the bowl touch the water in the pot. Let the chocolate and butter melt, stirring the mixture occasionally using a rubber spatula. Once the chocolate and butter has melted, remove the heatproof bowl and place it aside. Let the chocolate-butter mixture cool to lukewarm (the melted chocolate-butter mixture should not be too hot, otherwise it may cook the egg mixture later on).

Place the eggs, sugar and vanilla extract in a separate clean bowl. Using an electric mixer, beat the egg-sugar mixture on low speed for 1 minute, then increase the speed to high and continue beating for another 4 minutes, until the mixture is thick and pale in colour.

Lower the speed to low and add in the melted chocolate-butter mixture. Mix until fully incorporated.

Sift in the flour, baking powder and pinch of salt directly into the batter and fold in gently. Fold in the chopped plain chocolate. The batter will be watery. Place the bowl of cookie batter aside in a cool place for 10 to 15 minutes. The batter will thicken slightly.

Preheat the oven to 180 degrees Celsius. Line baking sheets with baking paper.

Scoop a tablespoonful of the batter and drop it gently on the baking sheet. Repeat, spacing the cookie batter about 2 inches (5 centimetre) apart.

Bake the cookies for 8 to 10 minutes until the top of the cookies are wrinkly. Transfer the baking sheets to cool on a wire rack for 5 minutes before transferring the cookies to a wire rack to cool completely.

These cookies taste good by themselves or you can serve them with a scoop of ice cream. Or - spread a layer of softened ice cream on a cookie, top with another cookie and freeze until the ice cream is firm - ice cream cookies!

Store the baked cookies for up to 5 days in an air-tight container.

Notes:

[1] - I still find the cookies a tad too sweet (even though I've already reduced the amount of sugar used from 250 grams to 180 grams). It is hard to go on to the third cookie because it's simply sugar-overload! So, I'm gonna reduce the amount of sugar used to 150 grams the next time I baked it and omit the chopped plain chocolate.