Hope 2013 has gotten off to a good start for you all! It's gotten off to a somewhat gloomy start here in New York City, but I'm not going to let that get me down. I vow that 2013 is going to be a year of positivity, and plus, I was born on the 13th of April, so 13's a lucky number for me.

Anyway, my friends in Australia really like chocolate, so I made them these über chocolate-y cookies while I was there and ... I can't speak for my friends, but I really loved them. I baked a batch and gave some out as Christmas presents to my friends here in New York City. They were loved here as well.

The recipe is more or less Giada De Laurentiis' recipe, except I didn't bother doing any espresso bean grinding -- I substituted that for store-bought ground coffee I already had in my pantry.

Double Chocolate Coffee Cookies
Makes 12 to 16 cookies
Takes approximately 30 minutes, including prep

Ingredients
1 bag (12 ounces) of semi-sweet chocolate chips for baking*
2 tablespoons of unsalted butter at room temperature
1/4 cup of ground coffee [Giada uses 1/3 cup of ground espresso beans, but I found 1/3 cup to be too intense and bitter]
1 cup of flour
2 tablespoons of unsweetened cocoa powder
1 teaspoon of baking powder
1/4 teaspoon of fine sea salt [make sure it's fine; use table salt if you don't have fine sea salt]
3/4 cup of sugar
2 eggs, at room temperature
2 tablespoons of water
1 teaspoon of pure vanilla extract

*Giada uses two types of semi-sweet chocolate in her recipe -- Ghiradelli and Nestle Toll House -- but since she recommends 6 ounces of each type and one bag is 12 ounces, I thought that there was no point in wasting half a bag of chocolate

Recipe
Set the 2 eggs aside to warm to room temperature. Preheat oven to 300 degrees Fahrenheit and line 2 cookie sheets with parchment paper or spray with non-stick spray.

In a small bowl, combine 1 cup of chocolate chips and butter. Create a double boiler by placing the bowl over a saucepan of barely simmering water and stir occasionally until the chocolate has melted and smooth.

In a medium bowl, whisk together the coffee, flour, cocoa powder, baking powder and salt. In yet another medium bowl, whisk together the eggs, sugar, water and vanilla extract. Gradually add the dry flour mixture to the egg mixture until combined, stirring until thick and smooth. Fold in the melted chocolate and add the remaining chocolate chips.

Depending on how large you like your cookies, scoop out balls of batter onto the sheets, placing them a couple of inches apart. The batter will be extremely sticky, but will spread as they bake. Bake until the cookies are slightly puffed and the tops begin to crack, about 20 minutes. Allow the cookies to cool completely on the cookie sheets.