Giant Double Chocolate Cookies

Giant Double Chocolate Cookies - made dough May 4, 2013 from Annie's Eats

It was the picture of these on Annie's Eats that first sucked me into this recipe.  They looked so uniformly chubby on her blog (chubby is good when it comes to cookies) that I had to pin it to make later.  This was one of the cookie doughs I made when it was too hot to bake and I've had them sitting in my freezer waiting for the temps to come down and a social occasion to take them to.  The stars aligned this week for that to happen and I finally got to bake off some of the dough in my freezer.

The most critical thing to remember when baking chocolate cookies is to never overbake them or even fully bake them.  The lure of a good chocolate cookie is for it to be fudgy and you're only going to get that moist, fudgy texture by underbaking them.  If you're like me and are horrible about timing things in the oven (I have a mental block about using a timer - it's a matter of baker's pride to be able to tell when something's done just by looking at it), then another trick is to bake until the middle no longer looks raw or shiny.  The instant that happens, take the cookies out of the oven.  They'll continue to bake on the hot cookie sheet and that's okay because you don't want to move hot cookies too soon as they're too fragile.  Even if you like gooey chocolate, it's best to let these cool to at least lukewarm.  The edges will be a little crisp and the middle will have the perfect fudgy-but-not-overly-gooey texture.  In addition to a handful of chocolate chips, I actually chopped up a big bar of Milk Chocolate Hazelnut Toffee I had brought back from Europe (let's hear it for Heathrow duty free) into chunks.  The sweetness of the toffee and caramel in the chocolate paired well with the dark chocolate cookie.  As always, how good these cookies turn out will depend on the quality of the cocoa you use.  I recommend Pernigotti's, Scharffenberger or something equally high end to get the maximum chocolate flavor.

1 cup (2 sticks) cold, unsalted butter, cubed
1¼ cup sugar
2 large eggs
½ cup dark cocoa powder (I used Pernigotti's Cocoa from Williams Sonoma)
2¼ cups all-purpose flour
¼ teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking powder
2½ cups semi-sweet chocolate chips (I cut up a big Milk Chocolate Hazelnut Toffee bar)

1. Preheat the oven to 350˚ F.  Line baking sheets with parchment paper or silicone baking mats.  
2. In the bowl of an electric mixer, combine the butter and sugar.  Beat together on medium-high speed until light and fluffy, 2-3 minutes.  Blend in the eggs one at a time, scraping down the bowl as needed.  
3. Mix in the cocoa powder until well blended.  Add the flour, salt and baking powder to the bowl and mix on low speed just until incorporated.  Fold in the chocolate chips with a spatula. Transfer the dough to a work surface and knead briefly by hand to be sure the ingredients are well combined.
4. Divide the dough into 4 ounce portions (or divide into 12 equal pieces).  Roll each portion of dough into a ball and flatten just slightly into a disc.  Place on the prepared baking sheets, a few inches apart.  Bake 16-20 minutes.  Let cool on the baking sheets 5-10 minutes, then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.