Rich chocolatey soft cookies with a chocolate orange ganache
Preheat oven to 180C / Gas mark 4
Line a large baking sheet with greaseproof paper or a reusable sheet. You can just grease it, but it’s easier on paper
Melt the chocolate until just smooth, and set aside.
Beat together the softened butter and sugar until light and well mixed in another bowl
Add the egg yolk, vanilla and orange extracts and stir in. Then add the chocolate and stir until smooth
Add in the flour and cocoa powder. It will feel a bit stiff but will come together in a sticky dough. I used my hands to bring it together into the dough as a spoon wasn’t doing much
Take dessert spoon size amounts of dough and roll into balls. You should get between 18-20. Roll each into a plate of granulated sugar then put on the baking sheet
Press a thumb gently into each cookie ball to make an indent, and flatten the balls more into round cookie shapes.
Bake in the oven for 12 minutes until they’re slightly hard at the edges. Mine needed the full 12 minutes as they looked a bit wet when I checked them at 10 minutes. You’ll find they’ll crack a bit around the edges. If the indents have risen just push them back down
Leave to cool for 5 minutes on the baking sheet on a wire rack, then take off the sheet and cool fully.
To make the ganache, melt the chocolate. I used the microwave, heating for 20 second bursts until it was mostly melted, then stirred to melt the rest
Add the cream and stir in. It should get thicker as soon as you add the cream, then the orange extract. It should have a silky and smooth texture and look shiny.
Spoon or pipe the ganache into the thumbprint indents in the cooled cookies. And leave to set in the fridge or somewhere cool for around 20 minutes
Store in an airtight container for up to a week
For the filling, add the double cream after melting the chocolate - it’s easier to avoid it going grainy which I found when I melted the chocolate with the cream in.
To make more contrast for the ganache, use white chocolate, add the extract and cream, and a drop of orange food colouring. It will give a pretty orange topping and will be a little less rich in taste.
Melt the chocolate the way you like - I use the microwave on medium high, but you can melt the cream and chocolate together in a bain marie - bowl sitting on a saucepan above simmering water.
You can spoon in the ganache to the imprints on the cookies. I used a sandwich bag with a corner cut off (homemade piping bag) - it makes it easier to control.