Fudge Drops

At the market yesterday I picked up couple of bags of Guittard's Extra Dark (62%) Chocolate Chips. Extra dark chocolate packaged in a pretty red bag? I couldn't resist. So today, when the chocolate cravings hit, I contemplated what to do with the chips. Brownies would have been a great showcase for the chocolate, but I wanted something a little more sturdy. I turned to this recipe from one of my favorite baking books of all time, The King Arthur Flour Baker's Companion Cookbook:
Fudge Drops
Ingredients
- 12 oz. ( about 2 cups) bittersweet or semisweet chocolate chips
- 2 T butter
- 3/4 cup sugar
- 3 large eggs
- 2 tsp espresso powder (I never have this, so I didn't use it)
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 1/4 tsp baking powder
- 1/4 tsp salt
- 3/4 cup flour - powdered sugar (optional)
Directions
1. Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Melt together chocolate and butter in microwave or double boiler. 2. In a separate bowl, beat together the sugar and eggs until well combined. 3. Add espresso powder (if using), vanilla, baking powder, and salt. 4. Stir egg mixture into melted chocolate and mix until smooth.5. Stir in the flour.6. Let the batter sit for 5 minutes to thicken; it should be the consistency of thick cake batter. 7. Drop the cookie dough in round blobs (I used a large and small cookie scoop for this) onto greased or parchment-lined cookie sheet. Leave 2 inches between cookies for spreading.
8. Bake 10-12 minutes, until tops are shiny and cracked. They should be cooked all the way through, but just barely; the batter in the center should still be moist, but not raw or liquid.9. Remove cookies from oven, let cool on cookie sheet for 5 minutes, and transfer to wire rack to cool completely.10. Dust the tops of the cooled cookies with powdered sugar if you like. The cookies turned out dark as midnight with a very rich chocolate flavor. The powdered sugar helps offset the richness, but you will certainly want a glass of milk with these. I loved the dark chocolate in this recipe; the cookies, with their limited ingredients, are an excellent vehicle for good quality chocolate.

*Please excuse my attempts at food photography. Much as I lovelovelove food photographers, I am not one. :)