Sinfully Delicious Triple-Chocolate Cookies

In preparation for the onslaught of holiday parties in the upcoming weeks I knew it's that time of year again: cookie baking season. I started with easy homemade peppermint bark and began considering cookies to compliment - would I go for the classic sugar cookie this year? I think not. I wanted something with a little more panache.

So when I saw the segment of Nigella Lawson featuring her recipe for "Totally Chocolate Cookies," I knew I had found my winner. The premise of the clip is that Nigella makes these intense chocolate cookies for friends who have suffered bad break-ups, calling attention to the wondrous healing powers of chocolate. And these cookies layer it on, with melted dark chocolate, cocoa powder, and chocolate chips to reach a higher level of chocolatey goodness. I went about procuring the recipe for these over-the-top indulgent morsels and found, of course, the ingredient amounts listed in European measurements (I must point out that Nigella's British and not using the absurd English measures system so what's wrong with America, really?) so I set off converting the grams to cups, a new skill to add to my cooking ability repertoire. Then I made my own tweaks, substituting dark brown sugar for light, using a little less white sugar than called for, choosing a dark chocolate truffle bar (you can find this at Trader Joe's) for melting, and a mix of both semisweet and milk chocolate chips for fun. I doubled the recipe and baked about two thirds of the batter this way, and added white chocolate chips and tart dried Monterey cherries to the mixture, and cut down on the bake time by three minutes for this alternate version. The verdict? These cookies are to die for. As always, Nigella you are my supreme domestic goddess.

Here's the original recipe: 

http://www.bbc.co.uk/food/recipes/intensechocolatecook_87336

*Note the batter becomes increasingly thicker as you scoop it, appearing surprisingly dry and gummy but coming out chewy and soft when baked, don't you worry. Use an ice cream scoop for sure. You'll need milk!

Torta alla Giundia Recipe

From How to Be a Domestic Goddess by Nigella Lawson:

Ingredients
6 large eggs separated
pinch of salt
1/2 cup unsalted butter
14 oz. nutella jar (resist the temptation to eat it all ...)
1 tbsp. frangelico (I doubled this)
1/2 cup ground hazelnuts (I had much less actually)
4 oz. bittersweet chocolate melted
9" springform pan lined with greased wax paper (I found a greased cake pan worked fine)

Icing
4 oz. hazelnuts
1/2 cup heavy cream (here I used half and half with some cooled hazelnut-flavored espresso mixed in to give the icing an extra touch)
1 tbsp. frangelico (again I just eyeball it)
4 oz. bittersweet chocolate (I was a bit short so I supplemented a bit of semi-sweet)

Directions
1) Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Whisk egg whites in large bowl, with pinch of salt, until stiff but not dry. (Be patient here!)
2) In a separate bowl beat the butter and nutella until creamy. Add frangelico, egg yolks, ground nuts and blend.
3) Melt bittersweet chocolate over double boiler and cool. Fold cooled melted chocolate into batter.
4) Add a dollop of egg white, about a third, and fold in, and repeat with remaining thirds. Do not overstir.
5) Pour into pan, bake 40 minutes, cool on rack.
6) Toast hazelnuts and cool totally for cake topping.
7) To make the icing: in heavy-bottomed pan add cream, chocolate, liquer, and heat gently until melted. Remove from the heat and whisk smooth. Cool.
8) Frost the cake with icing and top with toasted hazelnuts. Serve.

How to Become a Domestic Goddess

When I saw the title of Nigella Lawson's cookbook How to Become a Domestic Goddess I thought, "mmm, yes please!" Yet keep your kitchen knives lowered, my fellow feminist cooks, because upon reading the opening narrative I discovered that Nigella is one clever Brit. "This is a book about baking, but not a baking book," she delineates, "I neither want to confine you to the kitchen quarters or even suggest that it might be desirable." (LOVE her!) She continues to speak so eloquently and poignantly about the role of baking in our society that I had to agree: "In a way, baking stands for us both as a metaphor for the familial warmth of the kitchen we fondly imagine used to exist, and as a way of reclaiming our lost Eden. This is hardly a culinary matter, of course: but cooking, we know, has a way of cutting through things, and to things, which have nothing to do with the kitchen. This is why it matters."

It's so true - baking, through its childhood and familial associations, is a classic stress-reliever. On 9/11 when the Twin Towers fell, when my mother stepped inside our home after racing out of the panic-stricken city, she sat down on our floor hugging her daughters and then pulled herself together and said, "okay, let's bake cookies." When my best friend Viki finally finished four long, stressful years of college, I asked her how she wanted to relax and celebrate and she responded, "let's bake a cake." When I come home after a busy day at work and need to decompress, what do I do? Bake muffins. So I have to toast to you on this one Nigella. "Sometimes we don't want to feel like a post-modern, post-feminist, overstretched woman, but, rather, a domestic goddess, trailing nutmeggy fumes of baking pie in our languorous wake."

Now as a British domestic goddess Nigella comes from the world of "puddings" - fruit cakes and mincemeat pies for the holidays, which is a whole world of baking in itself, and the recipe selection in the cookbook reflects this. I found some recipes fit for a proper tea party such as shortbread biscuits, and more decadent chocolate desserts to fuel my longstanding love affair. (Sorry honey, but my love for chocolate is the most serious and committed relationship I've ever had.) The recipes in How to Become a Domestic Goddess never fail to impress: when I saw the Torta alla Giundia, a hazelnut torte, essentially a flourless nutella cake, I knew immediately who to make it for. Someone I know has a nutella addiction, shall we say. And the torta was delectable, so rich even the tiniest bit on your tongue could send you to dessert ecstasy, topped with smooth ganache that may actually be the weakness of my weakness. Cheers Nigella, you truly are a domestic goddess.