Chocolate, fudge & smoked salt cookies

In many ways this is a bizarre recipe to pick from Gill Meller's wonderful book Time - there are so many inspiring and beautiful savoury recipes in it - but there are times when we all need a cookie and what better than chocolate AND fudge?

Gill writes: "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

100g (3 1/2oz) unsalted butter

100g (3 1/2oz) light soft brown sugar

50g (2oz) caster sugar

1 egg

dash of vanilla extract or the seeds from ½ a vanilla pod

150g (5 1/2oz) self-raising flour

75g (2 1/2oz) good-quality dark chocolate (70% cocoa solids), broken up

75g (2 1/2oz) your favourite fudge

1 or 2 good pinches of smoked salt flakes

Heat the oven to 190°C/375°F/gas mark 6. 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.

What to drink: Gill suggests coffee and/or a brandy which seems an excellent suggestion. Whisky would also be a good call as would an oloroso sherry or a madeira.

Extracted from Time: a year and a day in the kitchen by Gill Meller (Quadrille, £25.00) Photography: Andrew Montgomery.