Chocolate, fudge & smoked salt cookies

Winter

I like to serve these cookies warm from the oven after supper, with a coffee or a brandy, or both. You can make the dough in advance; simply roll it into a cylinder, wrap it in baking parchment and pop it in the fridge. You can then slice off individual rounds for baking whenever you feel like it. The pinch of smoked salt adds wisps of warmth to the bitter chocolate and sweet fudge, and gives the cookies an almost campfire quality.

Makes 8–10 large cookies

Ingredients

100g (3½oz) unsalted butter
100g (3½oz) light soft brown sugar
50g (2oz) caster sugar
1 egg
dash of vanilla extract or the seeds from ½ a vanilla pod
150g (5½oz) self-raising flour
75g (2½oz) good-quality dark chocolate (70% cocoa solids), broken up
75g (2½oz) your favourite fudge
1 or 2 good pinches of smoked salt flakes

Method

Heat the oven to 190°C/375°F/gas mark 5 and line two baking sheets with baking parchment.

Melt the butter in a small saucepan over a low heat. Put both types of sugar into a mixing bowl, pour on the butter and beat well. Add the egg and the vanilla extract or seeds and beat again until well combined. Sift in the flour and fold it in. Allow the mixture to cool for 15–20 minutes before stirring in half the chocolate and half the fudge pieces.

Dot heaped spoonfuls of the mixture over the prepared trays, then distribute the remaining chocolate and fudge equally over the surfaces of the cookies. Sprinkle the cookies with the smoked salt and bake for 8–10 minutes, until the cookies are lovely and golden. Allow the cookies to cool for 10 minutes before lifting onto a cooling rack to firm up. Store in an airtight container for up to 1 week.

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