Rich, indulgent cookies are always the answer. To any question.

All right, picture this.

Imagine a cookie that is soft, rich and fudgy, with melty pools of dark and milk chocolate chunks, and some flaky sea salt sprinkled on top. Does this sound like an ideal situation to you ? If it does, you’ve found yourself in the right place.

Not only are these double chocolate cookies super decadent, they’re also insanely easy, made in one bowl, and require no chill time. This is beyond ideal if you’re an impatient baker like me. And also if you hate cleaning up a huge mess after baking. I know I do.

This recipe will yield 8 large cookies – which is a much smaller batch than a typical cookie recipe would yield. But If you don’t want to make all of these cookies in one go, you can easily keep the dough in the fridge or in the freezer. Plus, the baked cookies can be frozen as well, which means fresh cookies whenever you want. Just grab one out of the freezer like an hour before your morning coffee break and boom, the best mid-morning snack with zero effort. You’re welcome.

Recipe / serves 8

Ingredients

70g butter, melted

100g golden granulated sugar (see notes)

50g caster / superfine sugar

1 egg

1 tsp vanilla extract

110g plain / all purpose flour

20g cocoa powder

1/4 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp salt

100g chopped chocolate - I use half milk and half dark

Flaky sea salt, to garnish

Method

Preheat the oven to 180°C / 350°F, and line two baking trays with parchment. These cookies are big, so they'll need a bit of space to spread!

Melt the butter gently in the microwave or in a small saucepan. Allow to cool for a few minutes before using. While it's cooling, chop up the chocolate and set aside.

Mix together the butter and sugars with a spatula until a thick paste forms. Then add the egg and vanilla extract and continue to mix until well combined.

Sift the flour, cocoa powder, baking soda and salt into the bowl. Mix gently until a cookie dough forms and no dry spots remain.

Add most of the chopped chocolate to the bowl, reserving a few small chunks. Mix until evenly distributed.

Divide the cookie dough into 8 portions, and shape into balls. Stick the remaining pieces of chocolate on the top of the cookies.

Bake for 15-18 minutes, then remove from the oven and leave to cool on the tray for about 2 minutes. Then move to a cooling rack and sprinkle flaky sea salt on top. Enjoy while they're still warm!

Notes

Sugar

These cookies call for two types of sugar: golden granulated and caster. Caster sugar is white and super fine in texture, and golden granulated sugar is light gold and made up of medium sized crystals. If you don't have golden graniulated sugar, you can substitute it for light brown sugar. But please note that the texture will change slightly - the cookies won't be as fudgy or chewy, and will be a little crispier instead.

To chill or not to chill?

I've tested these cookies both unchilled and chilled, and to be honest, I didn't really notice much of a difference. They don't spread like crazy and the fudgy, chewy texture remains pretty much the same. Plus, less time to wait for your cookies to be ready! Although you can chill them if you find the batter a little hard to scoop and shape into balls - totally your call.

Storage

Any remaining cookie dough can be kept in the fridge for up to one week, or in the freezer for three months.

Baked cookies will keep for two days in an airtight container before they start to taste a little stale. They are also suitable for freezing for up to three months.