Marzipan plus chocolate is awesome

I'm trying to build up a backlog of recipes so that if I'm ever stuck with not enough joie de vivre to bake something on a given weekend I can still put something food porny up every week.  However, these cookies were too good to keep to myself, and so you get some mid-week tasties.

I am a big fan of comfort food.  Sometimes you need something that is full of flavour, full of fat, and utterly bad for you.  Sure, you could always just whip up some raw cookie dough (I am not afraid of raw eggs, but if you are there are many egg-free cookie dough recipes specifically for eating raw), but throwing something in the oven isn't really that much work if you're not interested in making something pretty.

In my mind, unless you're in a cooking competition or your job is making food pretty then taste comes first.  I think there's way too much pressure on people these days to produce works of edible art.  If it's just you and yours, there's no need to be fussy about things.

Just make stuff that you like to eat.

In that vein, these cookies are pretty much as ugly as sin.  They don't even have a quirky rustic feel to them - they just look like cow pies.  I regret nothing, though, because they are amazingly tasty.

Marzipan + Chocolate = Awesome Cookies

125 g marzipan (or 1/2 of a 250 g pack - marzipan is very heavy, so 250 g is less than 1 cup)
1/2 cup butter
1 teaspoon vanilla (I use vanilla paste, but any vanilla flavouring will do)
1 cup plain flour
1 cut white sugar
1/2 teaspoon baking soda (sodium bicarbonate)
1 pinch (1/4 to 1/2 teaspoon) salt
2 tablespoons of cocoa (unsweetened)
1 egg

Chop marzipan into rough chunks of about a teaspoon in size
Cut butter into 1 cm wide slices and put in a microwave safe bowl with marzipan
Melt marzipan and butter together in microwave (1 - 2 minutes)
CAUTION: this mixture will become hot liquid sugar and oil napalm; do not stick your finger in it, and do not lick the spoon!
Stir the melted mixture well to make sure the marzipan is totally melted
Add vanilla to the melted mixture and stir well

Mix flour, sugar, baking soda, salt and cocoa together in a large bowl
Pour melted mixture (carefully) into dry ingredients and stir with a spoon until about half the mixture is incorperated and wet - this will help cool the melted mixture quickly
Carefully test the temperature of the gooey mass - when it is warm, not hot, add the egg and mix thoroughly

Place teaspoons of the dough 5 cm apart on parchment-lined cookie sheets (these cookies spread a great deal)
Bake in a preheated oven at 200 C (400 F) for 8-10 minutes

These cookies can range between delicate and chewy or very crisp depending on how long you want to leave them in the oven.  The crinkly surface probably isn't great for icing, but they would work well if you wanted to sandwich them with a creamy filling as they are very thin.