The Hunger Struck - Confessions of a Food Fanatic.

I have recently found myself craving chocolate more intensely than ever before. Whether it be choosing a dessert after dinner at a restaurant or a sweet treat to accompany a small cup of coffee to get me through the 3pm work day lull- chocolate is what has been tempting me recently.

When I still lived in San Francisco, there was one place where I would always lose my self control: the Tartine bakery. There’s nothing better than than grabbing a few of their amazing cookies and spending the afternoon laying around Dolores park. When I found myself back in the bay area last week for the Blog Her Food conference, I was extremely disappointed that I was unable to make it to Tartine. I felt that it was the one things I let slip by and shouldn’t have. Ahhh regret. Of course it is always impossible to get to all the the places I adore in the course of one already over packed weekend, but I found myself regretting this one the most.

I decided that I needed to stifle all these feelings of regret and whip up a batch of their double chocolate cookies. I have to admit I was a bit nervous about it as there’s nothing worse then attempting to replicate a cookie you remember in a certain way and then completely ruining it. I’m really good at this for some reason. Generally this occurs when I convince myself that I don’t need a recipe and can just figure it out by taste. I know that sounds sort of ridiculous, especially since it’s not like I’ve gone through any pastry training whatsoever, call it over confidence, it happens quite a lot.

Thankfully, I had a little talk with myself before I decided to go ahead and after a fair amount of resistance I decided that a recipe was the best choice. I found this one which is in the Tartine cookbook on the scharffen berger website and have since then ordered the cookbook so I’m sure that there will be a lot of amazing sweet things to come.

The great thing about my decicion to follow the actual recipe was that I actually got the result I was looking for. Ooh these cookies are simply amazing and perhaps even more so because I had to actually do the work for them. They are amazingly chocolatey with the most perfect moist chocolate inside you have ever tasted and definitely made me feel like I had a little bit of Tartine with me on a cloudy Vancouver weekend.

Deluxe Double-Chocolate Cookies – Recipe from Tartine

8 ounces good quality bittersweet chocolate – I used Scarffen berger 70% bittersweet

1 cup plus 1 tablespoon all-purpose flour

1/2 cup plus 2 tablespoons cocoa powder

2 teaspoons baking powder

1/2 cup unsalted butter at room temperature

1 cup plus 2 tablespoons sugar

2 large eggs, at room temperature

1/4 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

1/3 cup of whole milk

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. Line a large baking sheet with parchment paper and warm up the eggs in a bowl of warm water if they are cold in your refrigerator.

Melt the chocolate in a stainless steel bowl over simmering water, or alternatively in a double boiler if you have one. When the chocolate is melted remove from the heat and let cool.

Sift together the flour, cocoa power and baking powder in ab owl and set aside.

In a mixer with the paddle attachment whip the butter on medium speed until creamy. Slowly add the sugar and mix until fully incorporated and soft. I did this in 2 stages, scrapping down the side of the bowl as you go. Once all of the sugar is incorporated add the eggs one at a time. Add in the salt and vanilla extract and once incorporated pour in the melted chocolate and beat on low speed. Add the milk and beat until combined. Once all of the wet ingredients have come together add in the flour mixture and beat on low until incorporated, at this stage be careful not to over mix.

Drop the dough in heaping tablespoons onto the prepared baking sheet and space them about an inch apart. these cookies don’t expand too much so you can actually get quite a few onto one sheet. Depending on your oven, bake the cookies for about 7 – 10 minutes or until just barely firm on top. My oven does not retain heat very well so it was closer to 10 mintues. You really don’t want to over cook these as their beauty lies in the extremely soft centers. Transfer to a wire rack and let cool. As they cool they will firm up quite a bit so don’t worry if they seem undercooked.