Craving Chocolate?  Perfect, me too.

Baking Illustrated.  It’s a classic cookbook that has great recipes.  I have featured the cookbook’s Thick and Chewy Chocolate Chunk Cookies in my blog earlier this year.  The test kitchens that create the recipes experiment with every variation and measurement until they get a recipe perfect.   The bakers explain why they use certain ingredients and they give tips on what works best.  So when I use a recipe from the book, I don’t change a thing.  Because the recipes are always right on point. 

So with my love for double-chocolate chip cookies and my search for its perfect recipe, I wanted to try the Triple Chocolate Cookie in Baking Illustrated.  It was intense.  It called for melted chocolate and cocoa powder. 

It also calls for two teaspoons of instant coffee or espresso powder. It's the secret ingredient.  Espresso or coffee enhances the chocolate flavor without adding any coffee-like flavor at all.  Enhancing an already very chocolatey cookie?  Sure, why not.                  

They are VERY rich and very good, trust me. Chocolate lovers will love you even more.

Thick and Chewy Triple Chocolate Chip Cookies

• 2 cups all-purpose flour 
• ½ cup dutch-processed cocoa powder
• 2 teaspoons baking powder 
• 1 teaspoon salt 
• 16 ounces semi-sweet chocolate (melted) 
• 4 large eggs
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 2 teaspoons instant coffee or espresso powder
• 10 tablespoons unsalted butter (1 ¼ sticks), softened
• 1 ½ cups packed light brown sugar
• ½ cup granulated sugar
• 12 ounces semi-sweet chocolate chips (about 2 cups) – (Or use any chocolate of your choice - white, dark, bittersweet)

- Sift together flour, cocoa, baking powder, and salt in medium bowl; set aside

-  Melt chocolate in medium bowl set over pan of almost-simmering water, stirring once or twice, until smooth; remove from heat. (Or melt in 30 second intervals in the microwave and stir until smooth)

-In small bowl, beat eggs and vanilla lightly with fork, sprinkle coffee powder over to dissolve, and set aside.

- In mixer, beat butter at medium speed until smooth and creamy. Beat in sugars until combined, about 45 seconds; mixture will look granular. Reduce speed to low and gradually beat in egg mixture until incorporated.

- Add melted chocolate in steady stream and beat until combined. Scrape bottom and sides of bowl with rubber spatula. With mixer at low speed, add dry ingredients and mix until just combined. Mix in chocolate chips. Do not overbeat!

- Cover with plastic wrap and let stand at room temperature until consistency is scoopable and fudgelike, about 30 minutes.

-  Bake at 350 degrees for 10 minutes, reversing position of the baking sheets halfway through baking (from top to bottom and front to back).  Bake until edges of cookies have just begun to set but centers are still very soft. Resist the udge to bake overbake!

- Cool cookies on sheets about 10 minutes, then transfer to wire racks to cool completely.

A little tip:  Bake these cookies 10 minutes, and don’t overbake. Since they are already dark it’s hard to tell! So be careful, and take them out after 10 and let them cool on the pan.

If you want to share the sweets, it’s fun to package them up and give them to others!  Tie up clear bags with colorful ribbons and you are set.