Love chocolate cake but don’t want to eat all that frosting? Love chocolate cookies but don’t have all day to chill the dough and roll them out? Need an intensely chocolate treat to satisfy a craving - and fast? Then these chocolate and hazelnut cookies are for you!

Adapted from a Martha Stewart recipe, these cookies are ridiculously easy and fast to make - you don’t even have to cream butter and sugar together! - and they turn out cakey and chewy on the inside and enticingly shiny on the outside. The secret is using good quality dark chocolate as the base, as opposed to plain ol’ cocoa powder like most chocolate cookie recipes do. It’s a great cookie to bring to get-togethers or to the office, and with Valentine’s Day coming up, it’s perfect for delighting a chocoholic significant other.

Adapted from Martha Stewart’s Outrageous Chocolate Cookies recipe

(Yield: About 15 cookies)

Ingredients:

8 oz good quality dark chocolate, roughly chopped
4 tbsp/2 oz unsalted butter, cubed
2/3 c all-purpose flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
2 eggs, at room temp
3/4 c packed light brown sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/3 c roasted hazelnuts, roughly chopped

Procedure: Preheat oven to 350F and cover a baking sheet with parchment paper. Heat chocolate and butter together in a bowl in 20-second increments, stirring between each, until almost melted - about 1 min. Do not overheat, as you risk burning the chocolate. In another bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder and salt.

In a large bowl, using an electric beater or a whisk, beat eggs, brown sugar and vanilla until light and fluffy. Reduce speed to low and add melted chocolate. Then gently add flour mixture - do not over-stir. Then fold in hazelnuts. (The result will be more of a batter than a dough). Drop heaping tablespoons of batter 2-3 inches apart (dough will spread as it cooks) onto baking sheet*. Bake, rotating sheets halfway through, until cookies are shiny and crackly yet soft in centers, about 12 minutes. Transfer to a wire rack to cool completely. Serve with cold milk.

*I used one baking sheet to bake all the cookies in two batches. I used about three-quarters of the batter for the first batch; while it was baking, I stored the remaining batter in the fridge. When the first batch was done, I transferred the cookies to a wire rack and baked the remaining cookies on the same sheet.

What is your favorite chocolate dessert?