Ben's Cookies Style Chocolate Chip Cookies

For today's post I have taken inspiration from Anna from Vivianna Does Make-Up, and baked the Ben's Cookies style chocolate cookies that she has been raving about. Before we go any further, I must issue a warning to you that these are seriously good and may lead to side affects including addiction, eating a whole batch in one go and a serious case of sugar overload. 

Don't say I didn't warn you!

First up, you will need the following ingredients:

300g Caster Sugar

200g Unsalted Butter

275g Flour (Plain or Self-Raising - I used Self-Raising)

1 Large Egg

75g Cocoa Powder (I used Green & Blacks)

1 bar of chocolate of your choice (I used a 200g bar of Cadbury's)

100g Chocolate Chips or chopped chocolate, plus extra for topping (I used white chocolate chips)

Here's how to make the cookie dough:

Firstly you need to pre-heat the oven to 200°C (for a fan oven), and line two baking trays with greaseproof paper

Cream the butter and sugar together in a mixing bowl, either with an electric whisk or wooden spoon

Then add the egg, and beat into the mixture

Next you need to add the cocoa powder and mix in with a wooden spoon. I actually only used 50g as that's all I had in the cupboard and substituted the other 25g with flour, but it's completely up to you

The dough is a little on the dry side after you have combined all the flour, so mix in a dash of milk at this point to add some moisture

Next you need to add the chocolate chips or chopped chocolate. It's entirely up to you what you want to use, whether it's white, milk or dark and if you use chips, chunks or a chopped bar. I decided to use white chocolate chips for ease and I love white chocolate!

Now it's time to put them on the baking tray. The mixture isn't too messy, but I used a wooden spoon to get some mixture to roll into a ball. The mixture made 11 cookies for me (obviously the bigger the better), and for this I took just under a palm sized dollop of cookie dough and rolled between my hands. Place on the baking tray, making sure to leave a good gap between each one, as they will spread in the oven

Once you have used all the mixture and your trays are full, place a square of chocolate on top of each one (I used the 200g bar of Cadbury's as the pieces are smaller than a normal bar, and are a good fit)

Gently press the chocolate square into the dough, and then cover the square back over with cookie dough. This will give you a perfect melt in the middle centre

Finally, place a few chocolate chips on top of the dough and bake for around 9 minutes

After 9-10 minutes remove the cookies from the oven. Don't be fooled by their gooey, not quite cooked appearance, this is exactly how you want them. If you leave them to cool in the baking tray for a few minutes they will firm up a bit and be the perfect mix of slightly crunchy on the outside and soft and squidgy on the inside

Once firm enough, transfer the cookies to a wire rack to cool. If yours spread in the baking tray like mine did you'll have to separate them first. I just took a metal fish slice and cut between each one and then used it to move the cookie to the wire rack

Last but by no means least, enjoy one of these moreish treats whilst still slightly warm from the oven, accompanied with a cup of tea.

You can watch the video recipe that Vivianna recommended here and check out Vivianna's mention here.You should also read her blog too 'cos it's awesome.

I hope you enjoy these as much as I do!

Megan x