Chocolate Chubbies!

Last week, I was hankering for something chocolatey, and was willing to put in some extra effort for it to taste really, really good. Naturally that took me to Food Gawker and I typed in a couple of search terms that I had been keeping in the arsenal for a while.

Brownie + Cookie

The antithesis of a Blondie, I wanted brownie-taste in cookie form.

Oh and how these Chocolate Chubbies delivered.

It was a little more time-consuming than my standard chocolate-cookie recipe, involving melting chocolate, frothing eggs and even using the mixer!!
It was also a smidge more expensive, as I went all-out and got the Ghirardelli bittersweet chocolate, and even sprung for the superfine sugar and sea salt.
It was worth it, however, these cookies were rich and brownie-like, with just the rite ratio of chew to crunch. I would've liked them to be a little sweeter, however, because the unsweetened chocolate seemed to overpower it a little. Maybe next time I'll mix up the ratio of bittersweet/unsweetened or pick a different %chocolate.

In all, however, a nice hybrid dessert treat!!

P.S. Thanks to my sous chef Matt who did most of the chopping and hard labor.

Chocolate Chubbies

adapted from Divine Baking

8 tablespoons unsalted butter
8 ounces semi/bittersweet chocolate (no more than 62% cacao)
3 ounces unsweetened chocolate
½ cup unbleached AP flour
½ teaspoon baking powder
¼ teaspoon fine sea salt
3 large eggs, at room temperature
1 ¼ cups superfine sugar
2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
~1 cup (12 ounces) semisweet chocolate chips (I used chunks)

Preheat to 350°F. Line pans with parchment paper.

Melt the butter in a large bowl. Add the chocolate, not the chips, stirring often, until melted and the mixture is smooth. Remove the bowl from the heat and let stand, stirring occasionally, until cooled slightly but still warm(5 minutes).

Sift the flour, baking powder, and salt together into a medium bowl. Whip the eggs with a mixer on medium-high speed until the eggs are foamy and lightly thickened (30 seconds). Increase the speed to high and gradually add the sugar, then the vanilla. Whip until the eggs are very thick and pale yellow (3 minutes). Reduce the mixer speed to medium and beat in the tepid chocolate, making sure it is completely incorporated. Change to the paddle attachment and reduce the mixer speed to low. Gradually add the flour mixture. Remove the bowl from the mixer. Using a wooden spoon, stir in the chocolate chips. It will look more like a batter than a dough.

Dish out the batter onto the prepared pans with a cookie scoop, spacing the cookies out as they WILL spread. Bake 12-15 minutes. Do not overbake!!!! Cool completely.

Makes about 2 dozen cookies.

Here's what was left when they finally were cool...