Busy Girl Bakes: Choc Chip Cookies recipe

Gooey, crumbly, dark chocolate cookies, stuffed with chocolate chips, which take less than an hour to make – what more can a busy girl ask for!

This delicious chocolate chip cookie recipe is created by Nigella herself, and it really does live up to those expectations! Once you’ve prepared and measured the ingredients it’s simply a case of gradually combining them, and then spooning onto baking trays. In fact, the hardest part is making sure they actually end up in the oven before you eat all the dough!

This recipe makes 18 medium-sized cookies.

Ingredients

125g dark chocolate
150g plain flour
30g cocoa powder (sieved)
1 tsp bicarbonate of soda
½ tsp salt
125g soft unsalted butter
75g soft light brown sugar
50g white sugar
1sp vanilla extract
1 egg
200g of your favourite chocolate chips (we used a mixture of dark and white)

Method

Pre-heat your oven to 170oC / Gas Mark 3. Line 3 baking trays with greaseproof paper.

Measure the flour, cocoa powder, bicarbonate of soda and salt into a large bowl.

Melt the dark chocolate in a separate bowl (either in a microwave, or in a heatproof bowl over a simmering pan of water). Take care not to let it burn.

In a separate bowl, cream together the butter and the two types of sugar. Stir in the melted chocolate.

Gradually beat the egg and vanilla extract into the same bowl. Fold in the mixed dry ingredients, gradually. Stir in the chocolate chips. You should have a sticky, chocolatey dough.

Spoon the dough onto the baking trays – roughly 1 tbsp of dough per cookie, lightly pressing down, but not flattening them (6 per tray will give them room to spread)

If you have the willpower, you can freeze part of your batch at this stage, ready to bake at a later date. (We’ll be honest, we’ve never managed to resist baking them all at once – and eating them pretty soon after!)

Bake for 18 minutes. Leave to cool on the trays for a few minutes and then transfer to cooling racks.

And that’s it! Bite into these crumbly, chocolate morsels and maybe even share a few, if you can bear to part with them!

Trying the recipe? Share your photos with us @tweetjanes