Chocolate-studded cookies.:)

I know these might look suspiciously similar to my Crazily Chocolatey double choc chip cookies (if you haven't baked them yet then please please pleaseeee consider doing so...check them out HERE if you feel so inclined ;) ), but no, I can assure you that these are a totally different cookie altogther. For starters, the cookie dough itself is entirely different. It is much sweeter as yes, there is a very cheeky amount of gorgeous light brown soft sugar in this recipe. (I adore this type of sugar...it just lends such a delicate caramelly flavour to the completed product. Almost always before I mix it with the other ingredients when I bake with it, I sift through the sugar grains with my fingers, primarily to break up any hard little clumps you occasionally get in it when it's been densely packed...and also to give myself some sort of excuse to inhale that fabulous sugary aroma. :) They aren't quite as dark as the other cookies, either, as there is less melted chocolate in the cookie dough. But rest assured, all ye chocaholics (yes I am including myself in this category, rest assured...) for this is undoubtedly very much made up for in the very, very, very generous amount of chocolate chips - some of which are reserved for studding in the tops of the cookies before baking. So what we end up with is a scrumptiously sweet, chewy, chocolatey cookie with lots of delightful chunks of heavenly milk and dark chocolate within, and on top of, each one.
 Like my Crazily Chocolatey Cookies, these biccies will have a slightly crack, rugged appearance, which all adds to their charm. And as always, feel free to increase the amount of chocolate chips if you so desire. ;)

Ingredients

• 255 g light brown soft sugar
• 125 g butter, softened
• 1 large egg, beaten
• 1/2 tsp vanilla essence/extract
• 225 g plain flour
• 30 g cocoa powder
• 75 g plain chocolate, broken into pieces
• 1 tsp bicarbonate of soda
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 100 g milk chocolate, chopped into large chips
• 75 g plain chocolate, chopped into large chips

Makes about 20 big cookies.:)

Method:)

• Preheat oven to 190c/fan 170. Grease two large baking trays and line them with baking paper.
• Cream the butter in a large bowl with a wooden spoon or electric mixer until very soft. Add the sugar and mix together well until light and fluffy.
• Bring a small saucepan of water to the boil on the hob. Place the 75 g plain chocolate in a heatproof bowl/dish and balance it over the simmering water. Allow to melt, stirring occasionally. Once melted remove from the heat and allow it to cool for a few minutes.
• Mix the vanilla with the egg in a jug and gradually beat into the creamed mixture.
• Sift in the flour, cocoa, bicarbonate and salt. Mix together with a large metal spoon. Mix in the melted dark chocolate.
• Set aside about one third of the chocolate chips for studding the tops of the cookies. Add the remainder to the cookie dough and mix together.
• Using a dessertspoon, scoop balls of cookie dough onto the prepared trays. Press the reserved chocolate chips gently into the tops of the cookies, but don't push them in too far - just enough so that you can still see them peeking out. ;) Space the balls of cookie dough well apart from one another so that they don't join up when they bake. These cookies are quite substantial so give them plenty of room to grow to their maximum potential. ;) 
• Bake the cookies in the preheated oven for 10-12 minutes: they should have increased in size and should have a slightly cracked appearance. They will be fragile to the touch at first: but this is normal so don't fret. Leave them on the trays for about 4 or 5 minutes.
• Use a metal spatula (or, as we in the Snelgrove house call it...the "fish slice" :o [no I don't know why exactly...as it is not used to slice fish under any circumstances...I don't believe in mixing crockery for savoury and sweet recipes ;) ]) to carefully transfer each cookie to a wire rack. And then of course, we have the usual dilemma: of whether to let them cool completely before consumption, so one can appreciate their delightful chewiness; and to not have to worry too much about the terrible risk of the cookie disintegrating; having been unceremoniously dunked into some form of hot liquid... or the other option of eating them when they are warm and gorgeously soft...with the chocolate chips having not yet hardened...yes, they are still gooey and molten and oozing, like miniscule exploded bombs of divine chocolate stickiness. Solution? I suggest you have both one now and later, so that the qualities of both cookie states can be adequately comprehended. After all your hard work with your wooden spoon and chopping board (all that chocolate chopping does take time, I know, I appreciate that all too well ;) ), it's too tiring and stressful a decision to have to be faced with for sure. ;)