My favorite cookbook hands down is Death By Chocolate by Marcel Desaulniers. I can’t say that I’ve actually made more than 10 of the 30 or so recipes, but every recipe I have tried is my new favorite.  These triple chocolate cookies are one of those favorites.

They are dark, extra chocolatey, soft with just a slightly crisp outer layer, and they are just a tiny bit salty.  Can you think of a more perfect cookie?  You can?  It’s missing something perhaps?  I know, some of you out there are literally jumping up and down shouting…”Where the heck are the nuts?”  What was SHE THINKING?

I know you can come along with me on all sorts of crazy foodie journeys, but now I may have just went too far.  How could an almost perfect chocolate cookie have gone so awry? You are starting to think I am an impostor chocoholic, but fear not, I am not an impostor, and I do have my reasons (sketchy as they may be) for leaving them out.

If you have been following along my blog as of late you are aware that my immediate family (kids and hubby) are anti-nuts.  Seriously!  That just bites!  I love them (fam. and nuts…that may be synonomous) myself, but sometimes, when I am trying to be “good” and not eat a whole plateful of something devilish and calorie laden, I purposely make it just short of perfect…i.e. leaving out the nuts.  Then I don’t feel as tempted.

There’s one BIG problem with this whole scenario…If my dad is reading this blog while on his weekend trip, he is actually shouting at the screen right about now and I should be expecting a disgruntled call shortly. He doesn’t believe in eating anything cookie-like or brownie-ish without nuts, and he lives within 10 minutes of my house so, naturally, he always expects me to share my baking wonders with him— he who is the biggest chocoholic or our clan.  Leaving out the nuts is like the ultimate sin, and I, therefore, am the ultimate sinner.

One time, when I was just dating my now husband, I had baked a batch of chocolate chip cookies sans nuts.  My boyfriend didn’t like nuts, and I was planning to give most of them to him.  BIG MISTAKE. My dad didn’t talk to me for the rest of the day.  He was actually pretty upset.  If I were to get an F on a test, he would have been fine, but leave the nuts out of the cookies and all he!! breaks loose.

I don’t really think it was the nutless cookies that sent him over the edge, but perhaps it was the fact that his daughter had made some kind of choice, no matter how small, in favor of the boyfriend and not dad.  OUCH!  Now that I have a teenager, I can see how that could really send a stab through the old parental heart.  Maybe there was a symbolic death that day from the no-nut cookies, but somehow we both lived through it.

Today,  on the other hand, may be a different story.  Before this blog, I was able to secretly bake a batch of cookies without the nuts and he would never know the wiser, but here I am shouting to the world that my devastatingly delicious (I never claimed to be humble) cookies are nut-less.  I think I had better quickly go make a second batch with nuts.  OK DAD?  Did you read that? Are we good now?

Deep Dark Chocolate Fudge Cookies
Adapted from Death By Chocolate by Marcel Desaulniers
1 1/2 c. all purpose flour
1/3 cup unsweetened cocoa
1 t. baking soda
3/4 t. salt
4 ounces unsweetened chocolate, broken into 1/2 ounce pieces
8 ounces semi-sweet chocolate chips
1 1/2 c. tightly packed light brown sugar
1 stick + 6 tablespoons (14 T. total) of  unsalted butter, slightly softened
3 eggs
1 t. pure vanilla extract
1 c. chocolate chips
AND FOR THE NUT LOVERS…Add 3/4 c. chopped nuts of your choice (walnuts or pecans would be mine!)

Heat oven to 350 degrees.  In the top of a double boiler, melt your unsweetened chocolate and the 8 ounces of the semi-sweet chocolate chips.  Stir until melted.  Set aside the chocolate to cool.  In a large mixing bowl, sift together flour, unsweetened cocoa, baking soda and salt.  In a bowl of an electric mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, cream together butter and sugar on medium speed.  Then add one egg at a time, creaming in-between each egg.  Add vanilla and combine.  Add semi-cooled, melted chocolate and cream together.  Dump 1/2 of the dry ingredients into the sugar and chocolate mixture, mix, and then add the last 1/2 of the dry ingredients mixing again until all of the ingredients are well combined.  Don’t over mix.  Add your 1 c. of chocolate chips and stir together.  Drop batter in small icecream scoop fulls onto baking sheet lined with a Silpat mat or parchment paper.  Spray coating is not a good idea for cookies in general.  It tends to encourage the cookie to spread out and thin out.  Bake for 14 minutes or until cookies are still soft when touched but not gooey.  They will harden and continue to cook a bit while it cools.