For some reason this weekend I was really needing some chocolate. I mean, I usually need chocolate but I needed some serious chocolate this time. M&M’s weren’t cutting it. So I started searching for a really, really good chocolate cookie recipe.

Good news! I found it in Brown Eyed Baker’s excelent Better-than-Brownies Chocolate Cookies.

This recipe is from browneyedbaker.com and, really there are only a couple of things I did differently (please go check out her post on the recipe!). One was to skip the chocolate chips. I know I sound like a crazy person, but these cookies were quite rich as is, and I just thought the chocolate chips would put them over the edge a little. Another was to only do half the recipe. There are only two of us. We do not need 24 large cookies that are this amazing, because very soon there would be 0 cookies that were this amazing, and two people who were too stuffed full of chocolatey goodness. 🙂

You will need:

• 8 ounces semi-sweet baker’s chocolate (don’t use chocolate chips! They have stuff like paraffin in them and aren’t as good).
• 2 tbsp. butter, cut into small pieces
• 2 eggs
• 1/2 + 1/6 cups sugar (amount is weird because I halved the recipe, but it’s pretty easy to eyeball one half of a 1/3 cup scoop)
• 1/2 tsp. real vanilla extract (again, use the real thing for true decadence)
• 1/4 cups AP flour
• 1/4 tsp. baking powder

Start by melting the chopped chocolate and the butter in a heat-safe bowl in a MacGyver double boiler (put the bowl over an inch of water in a pot. Try to get similar sizes so the bowl is pretty steady on top of the pot). Keep the temperature on medium low – ideally this will go pretty slowly so no burning takes place. 🙂

While the chocolate is melting, use a whisk to mix together the sugar, eggs and vanilla separately. When the chocolate and butter have melted into a smooth liquid, take it off the heat, and temper with the egg by adding a teensy bit of chocolate to the egg at a time, so you don’t get chunks of cooked egg. Eventually you will be able to just add the rest of the chocolate. Be careful – the bowl will probably still be warm.

Stir in the flour and baking powder, and drop onto cookie sheets with either parchment or silicone baking mats (don’t skip this on these cookies). I would also do no more than 6 to a sheet, because they do spread quite a bit. Bake for 12 mintues at 350 degrees, and allow to cool on the tray, ideally set on a baking rack.

These cookies were so good – I honestly think they are some of the best cookies I’ve ever had. Kudos to Brown Eyed Baker for a really impressive recipe.