Chocolate Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Cookies

The weather has meant we have been confined indoors all weekend ... AGAIN! Snow is still somewhat of a novelty for me, although after 7 and a half years in the UK you'd think it would be second nature for me by now. The ice on the other hand, I'm not so keen on. And seeing as we have quite a bit of ice around at the moment Hubby and I decided that it was safer for my health (and back!) if we stayed indoors. "Fine by me!" I said and headed straight for the kitchen ;0)

I spotted this recipe over at Culinary Concoctions by Peabody quite some time ago. So long ago in fact that it had been my plan to make them for Chocolate Week way back in October! Oops [blushes]. But being trapped inside gave me the chance to spend the weekend trying to catch up on some of the recipes I have collected and added to my 'Must Make' binder. There was no better place for me to start on the binder than with this recipe, especially seeing as I only had to make the cookies, the chocolate chip cookie dough part I had managed to get around to a little while ago and they were safely stored int he freezer just waiting for their moment of glory.

Chocolate Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Cookies

Chocolate Cookie Base

170g unsalted butter, at room temp

1/2 cup caster sugar

1 cup brown sugar (I used light as I prefer the flavour)

1 egg

1 egg yolk

1 tsp vanilla extract

Pinch of salt

1/2 tsp baking soda

1 1/2 cups plain flour

2 tbsp cocoa powder

1 1/2 cups mini cookie dough truffles (recipe follows)

Preheat oven to 180C. Line baking trays with baking parchment.

In a standard mixer (using a paddle attachment) or with a hand held beater on medium-high speed, cream together sugars and butter until light and fluffy, about 3 mins.

Add egg, egg yolk and vanilla extract and beat until fully incorporated. Scrape down the bowl. Mix for another 30 seconds.

Sift together salt, baking soda, cocoa powder and flour. With the mixer on slow, add the flour mixture. Mix until thoroughly combined.

With the mixer on its lowest speed, add the cookie dough truffle pieces. Only mix until just combined but evenly distributed through the dough. Place in fridge for 20 mins.

Roll tablespoonfuls of the mixture into balls and place on the baking trays. I didn't flatten the dough. You could also use a small cookie or ice cream scoop to do this step, but mine broke the last time i used it, drat those chocolate chunks ;0(

Bake for 10-12 mins. Once cooked, the cookie swill be too soft to move as soon as they come out of the oven. Leave them for 5 or so mines and then remove them to a wore rack to cool ... if you can wait that long. We found them to have addictive qualities when they were still warm (actually they have addictive qualities when they are cool too!)

Mini Cookie Dough Truffles

60g unsalted butter, at room temp

1/2 cup packed brown sugar (again, I used light!)

1/2 tsp vanilla extract

Pinch of salt

1 cup plain flour

1 tin condensed milk

1/4 cup mini chocolate chunks or chips

Using a standard mixer (or a bowl and beaters) on medium speed, cream together the butter and sugar until light and fluffy, about 3 mins. Beat in vanilla.

With the speed on low, slowly add flour, alternating with condensed milk, beating well after each addition. Add the chocolate chips and blend until fully incorporated. Place into fridge for about 5-10 mins to firm up a bit before rolling.

Shape balls into pea size balls. They need to be tiny as they need to fit inside the cookie. Lightly dust with flour to prevent them sticking together and place in an airtight container. Store in the freezer for at least 3 hours.

This makes half a batch of Peabody's normal Cookie Dough Truffle recipe, I still have just under half of them left over ... what I shame I'll have to try some of the other recipes on Peabody's blog now to use the rest up!

Recipes taken from Culinary Concoctions by Peabody (I can't seem to find the actual post though! This link will take you to the cupcakes that I am going to try my hand at next!)

This recipe didn't fail, although I will admit that it wasn't quite what i expected. I thought by adding the cookie dough pieces frozen would mean that there were little nuggets of them through out the cookie, and there are nuggets, its just they are less obvious than I hoped for. That said, the cookies are very very nice, they go very well with a cuppa and in weather like this there are lots of cuppas being drunk. And because I baked them as balls, they are wonderfully chewy in the center ... just the way I like my cookies ;0)