Madly, Deeply, Truly Darkly Cookies

This is the cookie recipe I promised you the other day, apologies that it took a while. This recipe makes a quite small batch, anywhere between 12 and 16 cookies. This recipe is still so worth it though. The cookies are crisp to the point of crunchy on the outside and in the middle they are almost fudgey, best eaten when still warm and they make a wonderful dessert with ice cream. And the best part of all? They are fat and gluten free!! Amazing, isn't it?

Deeply, Truly Darkly, Deeply Cookies

• 1 cup dark (70% or bittersweet) chocolate chips or chunks
• 1/2 cup white chocolate chips/chunks
• 3 large egg whites
• 1/2 cup good quality cocoa powder (I use Green & Blacks)
• 1 1/2 cups powdered/icing sugar
• 1 tablespoon cornstarch
• 1/4 teaspoon salt

1. Melt the dark chocolate in the microwave, ideally in 30 second bursts and stirring in between. Once completely melted, set to the side and allow to cool.
2. Preheat the oven now to 400F (about 180C or Gas Mark 4) and grease two baking trays, ideally with fat free spray! (Otherwise if you have some of those amazing non-stick pans you don't need to bother with this)
3. Whisk the egg whites until they reach the soft peak phase. Add 1/2 cup sugar and continue to whizz until it looks glossy silver-white.
4. In a small bowl put together the dry ingredients and stir until well mixed. Slowly add the dry ingredients into the egg white (about a third at a time) and blend completely. Add the melted chocolate, making to scrape all the chocolatey goodness into the mix! The mix should be very thick at this point, so you may want to stop using your electric whisk. Finally chuck the white chocolate chunks in and give a good stir before popping the whole bowl into the fridge for about half an hour (perfect amount of time to clean up all the mess!).
5. Remove dough from fridge and quickly set about dolloping tablespoonfuls of dough onto the baking sheets, with a good inch or two between cookies. Pop into oven and bake for about ten minutes, but start checking up on them after about seven. They should look puffed up with cracks beginning to appear on the tops and should give when you poke them. Watch out for the bottoms though as they have a tendency to suddenly burn.

And there you have it! The best things about these cookies? They're so wonderfully dark that I don't feel the need to binge as they're so damn satisfying! Another upside I discovered recently is that if you manage to accidentally burn them, they're still great! The darkness of the chocolate really masks anything like that.

Am off now to have a wonder. There's a vintage fair in town so may do a fashion post later...

Have fun!

S.S.