Everything Chocolate Cookies

Chocolate Everything Cookies

• • 1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, room temperature

  • 3/4 cup light brown sugar

  • 1 egg

  • 1 teaspoon vanilla

  • 1 cup all-purpose flour

  • 6 tablespoons unsweetened "special dark" cocoa powder

  • 1/4 teaspoon baking soda

  • 1/2 teaspoon coarse kosher salt

  • 1/4 teaspoon cinnamon

  • 2 1/2 tablespoons cream

  • 1 cup assorted chocolate chips, dried fruit, candy pieces and nuts (I mixed in semi-sweet chocolate chips, white chocolate chips, peanut butter chips and pecans, with toffee bits and flakes of sea salt sprinkled on top)

In the bowl of your stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat the butter and sugar until light and fluffy, about 4-5 minutes. Scrape the bowl down and beat in the egg and vanilla.

In a separate bowl, combine the flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, salt and cinnamon. With the mixer on low, add the flour mixture by spoonfuls, mixing just until combined. Add the cream to moisten the dough. Mix in the chocolate chips, nuts, etc. Dough will be very thick; chill dough for one hour.

Preheat the oven to 350. Drop heaping tablespoonfuls of dough 2 inches apart onto a silpat or parchment lined baking sheet, and flatten slightly with a spoon. Bake for 8 minutes, until the edges are set, but the centers still look gooey. While the cookies are hot, sprinkle each cookie with the toffee bits and flakes of sea salt. Let cool for 5 minutes on the baking sheet before carefully transferring to a wire rack; they will be soft, so move them carefully so they don't fall apart. Cookies will finish setting up as they cool.

To bake in a ramekin for a deep-dish cookie, prepare and chill the dough as directed. Spray ramekins with non-stick spray, press two heaping spoonfuls of dough into the ramekins and bake at 350 for 10 minutes. Remove from the oven and sprinkle with coarse salt, toffee bits, a few chocolate chips, etc. Cool for 10 minutes, then serve with a scoop of ice cream.

The dough can be refrigerated for about a week, if you only want to bake a few fresh cookies at a time each night. Freeze leftover dough after a week.

Yields about 2 dozen single cookies or a dozen deep-dish cookies.

Recipe from Curly Girl Kitchen