Totally Chocolate Chocolate Chip Cookies

With a title like that, which chocoholic could resist? Anyway, this was my second new recipe I've just tried out, taken from Nigella Lawson's site. Someone told me her recipes are easy and yummy.

So I gleefully set out, bought myself an ice cream scoop over the weekend and went crazy buying expensive chocolates in the baking shop.

Ingredients:

250g dark chocolate
300g plain flour
60g cocoa
2 tsp bicarbonate of soda
1 tsp salt
250g butter
150 brown sugar
80 white sugar
2 tsp vanilla extract
2 eggs, cold from the fridge
A few handfuls of chocolate chips
A handful of hazelnuts

Method:
1. Melt dark chocolate (it's so easy using a microwave for this!).

2. Sieve flour, cocoa, bicarbonate of soda and salt into a bowl.

3. Cream butter and sugars. Add melted chocolate and mix well.

4. Add vanilla extract and eggs. Mix in the dry ingredients. Then add the chocolate chips and hazelnuts.

5. Scoop out the batter with the ice cream scoop and place them 6cm apart. Do not flatten them.

6. Bake for 18 mins at 170º C or until skewer comes out clean. Leave to cool slightly on baking sheet for a few minutes and transfer them to cooling rack to harden.

Some people who have tried it out commented that it turned out exactly like in the photos posted on her site. Now, seen here is the photo from her site:

See the lovely brown and round cookie? Now, here's how mine turned out:

Fat, flat and black.

It's huge! As I tried to take this shot, the cookie crumbled, it is that fragile!

Verdict:

It tastes good so far (I forced Dad to take some when it came out of the oven and he said, "Good! Anything that is fresh from the oven is good!" Cheh.) Now, as they all sit on top of one another, they are slowly conforming into a single mass of black cookie.

Still, this could be a repeat if I only knew what made it so flat and fragile.