Triple chocolate chip cookies

I don’t think you can ever have too many chocolate chip cookie recipes, in particular with a boyfriend like Alessandro who has yet to appreciate the awesomeness that is the ginger/cinnamon/clove-laced Christmas baking fare I grew up with in Germany (seriously, how can you not like gingerbread?). So while I cannot wait for an afternoon of gingerbread baking and decorating with my sister when Alessandro and I go to Germany this weekend to spend Christmas with my family, this week I thought I would bake something that he would like as well – after all, Christmas is all about indulgence, so I figured it did not matter much whether these cookies tasted particularly “Christmassy”.

The simple trick with these cookies is the immense hit of chocolate you get when you bite into them. Rather than adding melted chocolate or cocoa powder to a standard cooke recipe (which often changes the texture, resulting in a dense or dry cookie), I replaced some of the flour with cocoa powder and then added chocolate chips and cocoa nibs. I also reduced the sugar slightly from the original recipe as I did not want these cookies to turn out overly sweet and sickly which would have only distracted from the dark chocolate flavour. Lastly, a shot of espresso and a good pinch of salt make the dark chocolate flavour of these cookies really ‘pop’.

Triple chocolate chip cookies … with a shot of espresso
Makes ca. 2 dozen, depending on size

Ingredients
115g butter at room temperature
100g caster sugar
100g brown sugar
1 egg
1 small shot of strong espresso (30 ml)
180g all purpose flour
60g cocoa powder
1 pinch of salt
2 tsp baking powder
100g dark chocolate, roughly chopped
40g cocoa nibs
1/4 teaspoon sea salt flakes

Directions

1. Start by creaming the butter with the two types of sugar, mix for ca. 5-10 minutes until the mixture is light in colour and fluffy.

2. Mix in the egg and espresso, beat until well combined.

3. Mix together the flour, cocoa powder, salt and baking powder and combine with the butter mix.

4. Stir in the chocolate chips and cocoa nib.

5. Wrap the dough in foil or parchment paper and form a log, ca. 25cm long. Place the dough in the fridge overnight.

6. When ready to bake the cookies, preheat the oven to 170 degrees and line two baking trays with parchment paper.

7. Unwrap your log of dough and, using a sharp knife, cut the log into ca. 2 dozen slices that are ca. 1 cm thick. Place cookies on the baking trays leaving ca. 2cm space between the cookies and sprinkle some sea salt flakes on each cookie.

8. Bake cookies for ca. 8-10 minutes (the cookies should be slightly underdone when you take them out of the oven as they will continue cooking for a bit once taken out of the oven).

If you are worried about sitting at home with 2 dozen triple chocolate chip cookies, fret not, not only do these cookies last for a few days, they are also perfect for sharing with classmates or colleagues who will have no problem polishing this off for you!