These are delicious. And this recipe makes enough for a hungry band for a few days. Which is a lot. As with most situations, the more chocolate, the better.
225g salted butter 400g soft brown sugar 25g caster sugar 3 tsps vanilla extract 2 free range eggs 350g sifted flour 50g cocoa 2 level tsps bicarbonate of soda 450g - 500g your favourite chocolate (this is a little more than you need but it rarely all arrives in the mixture after chopping it.)
Firstly preheat your oven to 150 for fan ovens or 170 for fanless. Let the butter soften in a big mixing bowl, Then add the sugar and the vanilla extract and beat together until it's fluffy. If the butter's soft you can do this by hand no problem. Then mix in the beaten eggs. Now the sifted flour, bicarb and cocoa. This is a good point to start tasting the dough (there is raw eggs in it so don't go overboard but if you can resist it then well done) Now roughly chop your chocolate, try some, and mix in the rest. I think the bigger the chocolate chunks, the better.
Now, cover a baking tray with parchment and show it the butter so the cookies don't stick. If you want those big fat cookies put a big tablespoon sized blob down (and maybe an extra minute or two) for smaller cookies use a heaped teaspoon.You can do around 6 at a time. (you can freeze the dough balls to use another time but I've never really had any left over)
After 13 - 15 minutes take them out and give the cookies a couple of minutes before transferring them to a plate.
A glass of milk, a cup of tea, a few warm cookies. A breakfast of champions!
Have a go and let me know how you get on.