Chocolate Fudge Cookies

Toronto is so pretty this time of the year. The cloudless skies, the blooming trees, the crisp fresh air and the longer days. So invigorating. Seeing those tiny little buds sprouting out of the trees after the long stark winters is cathartic in so many ways. It has made me mindful of the resilience of nature all around us. My mom always says that since we are all made of the same earth, we carry similar elements to all the living beings on this planet within us in a larger sense. Seeing the little leaves and flowers blossoming all around me has been such a revelation. No matter how hard life gets, no matter how tough times are, no matter how exhausted you feel standing out bare in the cold, never forget, the summer will always be around the corner to bring you warmth, to bring you comfort and to bring you sunny hope. Most important of it all is, the strength lies within us.  

Now only if I had the resilience to resist these Fudge cookies. Think of a gorgeous fudge brownie and think of a beautiful chewy cookie with a crackly top. Now combine them both together and you get these ridonculous Chocolate Fudge Cookies! The flavour of chocolate in these is so intense because they use over 1 whole pound of chocolate. You can totally skimp out on the flour and baking powder to make them gluten free flourless chocolate cookies or just stick to the recipe!

I made a whole batch of these which was 18-19 cookies and had planned to distribute it to friends. And I didn't want all these cookies finding a place for themselves on my butt! But you know how man proposes and cookie disposes or was that 'God' Disposes? I forget. I ate almost the entire batch! Thankfully not all of them, but almost! You know half a leftover cookie in the jar still means that I didn't eat them all! 

I just couldn't help it! These Chocolate Fudge Cookies are worthy of being crowned the king of all cookies everywhere and forever. Now I obviously did not come up with the recipe but I really would like to bow down to whoever did and kiss their hands for making these so that millions of the people on this planet could benefit from them. 

They will add a spring in your step in spring, add sunshine to your life in summers, bring you the whiff of the crisp autumn air in the fall and make your days cosier in winters. They now and forever have a permanent place on my kitchen shelf. I used to say these Brown Butter Chocolate Chunk cookies are the best but these chocolate cookies surpass even them. 

Lets get cookin' then shall we?! 

Makes: 18-20 cookies

Time taken: 45 mins

Complexity: **

You'll need

1 pound/ 440 gms of semi sweet dark chocolate

4 tbsp salted butter

1/2 cup of all purpose flour

1 tsp baking powder

100 gms of chocolate

1/2 cup granulated white sugar

2/3 cup packed brown sugar

1 heaping tbsp instant espresso powder

4 eggs

1 tbsp of vanilla extract

Pinch of love

Method

In a bowl take the 440 gms of chocolate, add the butter to it and melt in the microwave for 20 seconds at a time till the chocolate has all melted. Keep stirring so that the chocolate gets melted evenly and doesn't seize up. 

Look how gorgeous and glossy. I could dive straight in! 

In another big bowl take your eggs, sugars, vanilla extract and coffee powder. With an electric whisk, keep whisking till the eggs turn pale and fluffy for about 5 minutes. They will more than double up in volume and run in a single thick ribbon. Thats when you know the eggs are whisked properly and the sugar has melted. 

See those air bubbles- perfect. Doing this ensures that the sugar and eggs rise to the top in the baking process making the surface of the cookies shiny and gives them this special crackly top. 

By this time the chocolate would have also cooled down slightly and you can now transfer this to the whisked eggs. 

Mix thoroughly but be careful not to beat the air out of the whisked eggs. Try and be gentle.

Dump in the flour and the baking powder to this mix and fold gently until just combined. Add in the chopped 100 gms of chocolate as well. You can use chocolate chips too but adding chocolate chunks works better for me somehow. Don't overmix the batter otherwise the cookies might turn out tough and not light. 

This is going to be quite a wet batter and you'll think how can you ever shape cookies out of this! But don't you worry, I got you. Cover the batter and put in the fridge for 20 mins or so. 

When you take it out of the fridge, the batter will look something like this. See how the shininess on the top has become more matte finished? 

And when you poke it with the finger, it doesn't feel liquid anymore. just soft batter. And you can already see a crackly top even on the batter. You did good! 

Next, preheat your oven to 175C or 350F. Line a baking sheet with some parchment paper. 

Use a medium ice-cream scoop or 2 tbsps to scoop out the cookie dough on the parchment paper. Now these cookies are going to spread and become about 3.5 inches big, so try and do max 8 cookies on a single cookie sheet. Just to be safe I did only 7 scoops at a time. 

Now this is totally optional but I saved some chocolate chunks from the 100 gms of chocolate I added earlier and topped the cookies with them. Bake for 13-14 mins just till the bottom of the cookies turns slightly brown. 

When you take the cookies out of the oven, don't even bring them off the rack for atleast 10 mins. They are going to be extremely fragile and they need to set a little. After 10 mins you can transfer these on a wire rack. Or if you're impatient like me, bite into that soft intense fudge cookies. 

Look at the centres of these... so fudgy. Am I right or am I right?! You can also see that chocolate chunk melted in the cookie

Their shiny crackly top is so flaky and the bottoms are just a touch crisp.  

So soft and chewy, these chocolate Fudge cookies are something that you NEED to make in your life and experience them at least once. 

Grab one from the stack if you will 

Indulge!