Because Some Days You Just Need A Lot of Chocolate

Today is one of those days. A bit of a chocolate pick-me-up (no, I'm not making tiramisu, but that would be really good as well) is required to get on with the day. A cookie, not just any sort of chocolate cookie but a super chocolate cookie, an able-to-leap-tall-glasses-of-milk-in-a-single-bound kind of cookie,. Today calls for....

Double Chocolate Espresso Cookies (the name is a bit lacking, I know, maybe I'll come up with something more brilliant after I've eaten a few of these) Inspired by a rather blah day:

1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
3/4 cup dutch process cocoa powder
2 tsp baking powder
2 tsp coarse sea salt (you can use 1 tsp regular salt, but I was looking for a bit o' salty crunch to these)
16 ounces semi sweet chocolate, chopped, melted and set aside to cool a bit
4 large eggs
1 Tbsp vanilla extract (or vanilla bean paste)
2 Tbsp instant espresso powder (more if you like, sadly I can only do caffeine in very small doses or get sick)
6 ounces (12 Tbsp or 1 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter at room temperature
1 1/2 cup packed brown sugar (I used dark because that's what I usually have on hand)
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1 cup chocolate chips (optional, if you really really want a good chocolate kick in the tookus. This will make these triple chocolate boring name cookies)
1 cup chopped nuts (again, optional)
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-Preheat oven to 350f. Line 2 sheet pans with parchment.
-Whisk together the flour, cocoa, and baking powder, set aside.
-Cream the butter for about 1 minute, add the sugars and mix well. Add the eggs, one at a time, mixing well to incorporate after each addition. Mix in the vanilla and espresso powder.
-Add the chocolate in a stream and mix well.
-Mix in the flour mixture and combine until the flour just disappears. Fold in the sea salt, chocolate chips and nuts.
-Allow the batter to sit for about 20 minutes or so (this allows it to set up a bit and makes for easier scooping).
-Scoop out the batter with a tablespoon or a small cookie scoop leaving 1 inch between each cookie. Bake for about 10 minutes, let cool on the sheet pan for 10 minutes, and then remove from the tray and finish cooling on a rack (you can also slide the parchment off of the sheet pan onto a cooling rack so you can scoop more cookies). The resulting cookie is cracked and chewy on the outside, soft, chocolatey and salty on the inside. This ended up making a lot of cookies, which you can store in the freezer in an airtight container.

Get yourself a big tall glass of milk and get to dunking! Oh yeah, and I'm renaming them Salty Triple Chocolate Kick in the Arse Cookies!
Happy Baking!

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