MAKES ABOUT 14
50g plain flour
20g cocoa
½ tsp baking powder
75g golden caster sugar
30g unsalted butter diced
1 medium egg
30g dark chocolate (about 70 per cent cocoa) finely chopped
about 30g icing sugar
- Sift the flour, cocoa and baking powder in a medium bowl, then stir in the sugar. Whiz the butter in a food processor until soft and creamy, then add the egg (don’t worry about the mixture appearing curdled at this point). Add the sifted ingredients half at a time and work to a sticky dough. Transfer the mixture to a medium bowl, then mix in the chopped chocolate. Cover and chill the dough for a couple of hours or overnight.
- Preheat the oven to 190C/170C fan/gas 5 and line a baking sheet with baking paper, securing the corners using dabs of the dough. Sift the icing sugar into a shallow bowl. Roll the dough into balls the size of a cherry (about 15g). Roll each one in the icing sugar so they are well coated and arrange on the baking trays, spacing them about 5cm apart.
- Bake for 10-12 minutes; the cookies should be crisp on the outside and gooey within. The icing sugar will crackle to look like icebergs in a sea of chocolate as they bake. Leave to cool for 5 minutes before loosening them using a spatula, transfer to a wire rack and leave to cool. They will keep well loosely covered with clingfilm for several days.
- Food styling Clare Lewis
- Styling Sue Radcliffe