Death by Chocolate

OK--finally here's the post on those ridiculous chocolate cookies.
                                                          ***WARNING***
Do not make these cookies unless you're really serious. I mean, really. Don't say I didn't warn you. They are stupidly rich and overwhelmingly chocolate-y. If you are brave enough, here's the recipe. I got this recipe from my wanderings on the internet--it looked Ok so I copied it down. I see from my printout that this recipe is adapted (by whom, I did not record, sorry!) from Brown Eyed Baker (Google her blog--you should find her, I think). She calls them Chocolate Espresso Cookies, but my kids named them Death By Chocolate. I think that name fits much, much better. And, yeah, I've adapted it somewhat too. After all, that's what happens to recipes, isn't it? Sometimes my internet recipes don't work out (the "best muffin recipe ever" I tried recently comes to mind; what a disappointment that was) but this one is a keeper for the permanent file. When cooled, they retain a lovely velvety, yet completely baked center that just melts in your mouth. And then there's all that chocolate accentuated by the espresso.

Death By Chocolate Cookies
yields ca. 3 dozen

16 oz. bittersweet* chocolate, chopped
4 tbsp butter
4 eggs
1 1/3 cups sugar
1 tsp vanilla sugar or extract
1/2 cup AP flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
1 tbsp espresso powder
1 cup semisweet or bittersweet chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line 3 or 4 cookie sheets with parchment paper. Melt chocolate and butter in a double boiler, stirring occasionally, until all chocolate and butter is melted and smooth. Here's my chocolate to start with:

And here's what it looks like when its all melted and lovely. While that's melting, combine the eggs, vanilla and sugar in a large bowl and set aside.

Sift together the flour, baking powder, and espresso powder. Slowly beat the chocolate and butter into the egg mixture until well combined. Gradually beat in the flour mixture until a smooth batter forms. Stir in chocolate chips.

The batter will be pretty runny/goopy. Drop by tablespoons of batter on to the parchment lined cookie sheet. You can see mine there to the left. And, yes, the parchment is necessary. You can get some somewhere in the vicinity of the wax paper and aluminum foil in your local grocery story. At least, that's where my local store keeps it.

Bake for 8-10 minutes or until they are firm on the outside. Remove from oven and let cool for 5 minutes then remove to a cooling rack with a spatula. You can eat them warm for the most intense chocolate fix. Or let them cool and mellow if you are more faint of heart. Either way, pour yourself a BIG glass of milk, sit down and take it slow. One cookie to start, maybe a second.

* Both times I made this recipe I did not have the full 16 oz. of bittersweet chocolate. As my google search told me, you can substitute semisweet and unsweetened chocolate. You will lose some depth of chocolate flavor but its doable. Of course, if you substitute to all unsweetened chocolate, your cookies will not be sweet enough so balance some semi sweet in there too. This last time I had 12 oz of bittersweet (you can see the 3  4 oz. bars of Ghirardelli 60% bittersweet chocolate) 2 oz of Baker's unsweetened chocolate and 2 oz Baker's semi-sweetened chocolate.