double chocolate expresso & cashew cookies

Whether I'm having a good day or a bad day, I like to bake chocolate cookies. Choc chip cookies are usually my first port of call, preference is for dark chocolate but milk and white chocolate go rather well too. And well, when I have all three types of chocolate at home, it only makes sense to do a combo of all  three! At the moment, I only have dark chocolate chips at home and it was after making the congo bars (in my previous post) that I came across this recipe double chocolate expresso & cashew cookies (it's the recipe before the congo bars) in David Lebovitz's 'The Great Book of Chocolate'.

Preheat oven to 160 degrees. Line baking trays with baking paper. In a large bowl, cream together 230g softened unsalted butter, 200g caster sugar and 180g light brown sugar until fluffy. Add in 2 eggs, 1 tsp vanilla extract, and 2tsp expresso powder. Mix well.

Sift into the mix 280g plain flour, 65g cocoa powder, 1 tsp baking soda and 1 tsp salt. Stir together. Add in 100g toasted unsalted cashews (stupid me didn't toast my cashews thinking that the roasted cashews where already 'toasted' anyway but they are not, they are almost no different to using the raw ones) and 100g chocolate chips.

Scoop the dough into balls and arrange them on a baking tray at least 4cm apart. Bake for about 20-25 minutes, turning and rotating the baking trays as necessary to ensure even baking. Really keep an eye on these cookies when they are in the oven as I went and burnt a few - they burn so quickly and you actually don't realise it because of how dark the cookie dough is.

Let cool for about 10 minutes before transferring from the baking sheet to the cooling rack.

Recipe says it should make about 24 cookies (give or take a few for me as I started burning a few)

Gobble up a few and do share with others - pack into airtight containers to keep them fresh.

These cookies were crunchy with a slighly chewy centre. It's a shame I didn't toast the cashews as it would've given the cookie extra texture and crunch. Untoasted, the cashews will appear to taste a little stale but if you're not looking for it, you probably won't notice it.

At the moment, I'm thinking that bag of dried cherries I bought will go well in a chocolate cookie. Hmmm...let me report back!