Chunky Chocolate Cookies

If you are a lover of cookies and chocolate, you are going to absolutely love these. These are heaven in your mouth, and incredibly indulgent. So they're definitely not keeping in with my theme of healthy, but what's life without an occasional indulgence, and remember occasional can mean different things to different people. 

It didn't take me long to settle on this recipe for my next post, as I pored through my collection of books. I was looking for a recipe that would double up as a snack for my lil Zi, and that made it easy to decide on making cookies. What was hard deciding was what kind of cookie I could try, considering there are only about 2548392 kinds of cookies you can make and this was only in the books I had. So phew!!! I made these on a Sunday afternoon as boys napped. I felt almost like a domestic goddess when an hour later they woke up to this transcendental aroma in the kitchen. Honestly, it felt like we were in cookie land. And although primarily chocolate I threw in some nuts and raisins for good measure and this was a good thing, because every bite was a surprise. I used a mix of dark and milk chocolate along with the nuts and raisins, but I promise you white chocolate will be a great choice too. So if you're a white chocolate person, just go ahead.

I'd definitely make these again, coz they looked gorgeous, tasted divine and most of all my lil boy loved them to bits, quite literally. His face lit up on the mention of having chocolate cookies in the house. He faithfully asks me every morning; "what you made mama?" which is just a hint of his eagerness to know what I've packed in his snack box for school. It's the sweetest thing to hear. Although pomegranate, grapes, puffed rice, oranges, watermelon are a few of his favorites, he unquestionably does delight in cookies.  

I urge you to give these a try, even if you don't have snack boxes to fill. These turn out truly delish. 

Chunky Chocolate Cookies

Makes 24 cookies

Ingredients: 

150 gms /1 cup dark chocolate

150 gms /1 cup milk chocolate

4 tbsps almonds 

4 tbsps raisins

75 gms /1/3 cup/ 5 tbsp butter

150 gms/ 1cup milk chocolate

2 large eggs

1/4 cup sugar

1 tsp vanilla extract

1/3 cup all purpose flour

1/4 cup cocoa powder

1/2 tsp salt

1/4 tsp baking powder

1. It's a good idea to get all the prep done first, with this recipe as it comes together rather quickly.  Keeping with the title, chop up the 150 gms of dark and milk chocolate into chunky bits, so really don't bother getting them all chopped equally. Do the same with the almonds and let the raisins stay whole. Keep aside in a bowl, all tossed together. 

2. Preheat the oven to a 170 C and line a baking tray with baking paper. Get started on making the cookie dough. 

3. Set a heatproof bowl over a saucepan of simmering water. To this bowl, add the butter and 1 cup milk chocolate. Stir it occasionally while it melts together. Make sure to keep an eye on it, so it doesn't burn. Take it off the heat and let it cool as soon as the butter and chocolate have melted completely or almost through. 

4. In a large bowl, add the eggs and sugar. Although I used about a 1/4 cup of sugar, if you're ok with a little less sweet, put a tablespoon less. Especially because you will have the extra sweetness from the raisins and chocolate chunks you add later. Honestly, less in more. 

5. Beat the eggs and sugar till they have just combined, by when the chocolate mixture would have cooled. So add it to the eggs and beat on low speed. Toss in the vanilla essence too. 

6. With the beater on the lowest speed, add the flour, cocoa, salt, and baking powder and don't be too particular about sifting it in. It works either ways.

7.Beat just until the dry ingredients have dissappeared into the mixture, after which you can turn off the beater. Using a rubber spatula, scrape down the sides of the bowl and toss in the chopped chocolate, almpnds and the whole rasins. Mix well, till you feel like they have been evenely distributed. It may not seem like a typical cookie dough consistency but don't worry about it. 

8. Using two tablespoons, place a moundful of dough for each cookie on the prepared baking tray. While you might be tempted to put heap fulls, keep in mind that the dough spreads as it cooks, so leave space between the cookies and also put just about a tablespoon of dough for each cookie.
9. Leave them to bake for about 12 -15 minutes. When  they are done, they will look wrinkled and dry on the top and might still seem a bit soft to touch, but take them out anyway and let them cool down on a wire rack. They will firm up as they cool.
10. Hold your head up high and bite into these little gorgeous chunks of paradise. The domestic goddess in you is here now.