Shawn and I spent most of Monday in the kitchen. While he worked on a huge batch of pasta sauce I made a whole bunch of cookies!

Look at all that sauce! Some in the freezer, some in the fridge, and if you can't tell from the empty bowls on the right, some in our bellies too.

But back to cookies! First I baked off a batch of our favorite chocolate chip cookies and then got started on a batch of our other favorite cookies, super chocolatey cookie goodness... the ultimate chocolate cookie. And today, you are going to love me, because I'm about to share the recipe with you.

I've gotten into the habit of measuring out all my ingredients ahead of time. It's something I learned in my pastry-kitchen working days because we would work with some time-sensitive step-by-step recipes, so having all the ingredients ready and on-hand made it much easier. It's a good idea so that you're not shuffling around your kitchen looking for last minute ingredients, but measuring everything ahead of time certainly isn't necessary for every recipe. It does make for a nice picture though!

Double Chocolate Cookies

1/4 cup all purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
8 ounces semisweet chocolate, chopped
2 tablespoons unsalted butter
3/4 cups (packed) brown sugar
2 large eggs
1/2 tablespoon vanilla extract
Flaky sea salt for sprinkling (optional, but recommended!)

Combine flour, baking powder and salt in small bowl; whisk to blend.
In another bowl stir the chocolate and butter over a double boiler (picture below), until the mixture is melted and smooth. Remove bowl from heat and set aside to cool.
Beat sugar and eggs in another bowl until thick.
Add the chocolate mixture and vanilla extract and beat until combined.
Stir in flour mixture until combined.
Batter will be wet - chill batter until firm, at least an hour. If you plan on leaving it in there overnight, I suggest taking the batter out of the fridge about an hour before you intend to bake the cookies; it's too hard and unworkable otherwise.

Preheat oven to 350°F.
Drop batter by spoonfuls onto sheet pans, (or use a cookie scoop, like I do) spacing two inches apart. Sprinkle each with a pinch of flaky sea salt, if you’re using it.
Bake just until tops are dry and cracked but cookies are still soft to touch, about 12 to 15 minutes.
Cool on sheet pan then transfer to wire rack. (They taste 10x better once cooled!!! Trust me.)

You can buy a double boiler, but why waste your money when you can achieve the same thing with a bowl set over a pot of boiling water? You're just looking for indirect heat, people! In theory, you could melt it all down in a microwave too. But where's the fun in that?