Chewy chocolate cookies that will shake your world

THESE delectable chocolate cookies have a perfect go-with-coffee texture somewhere between chewy and crumbly that gives them an amusing fault-line top crust and a slightly softer inside. Rolling the dough in two kinds of sugar before baking highlights the effect; the chocolate interior peeks through cracks in an iced-white surface. Assistant food editor Susan LaTempa found them at the Grand Casino French Bakery in Culver City.

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San Andreas cookies

Total time: 50 minutes plus overnight chilling

Servings: Makes about 2 dozen cookies

2 ounces ( 1/2 stick) butter

12 ounces dark chocolate

3 eggs

7 tablespoons granulated sugar, plus 1/4 cup for coating, divided

3/4 cup flour, sifted

2 tablespoons baking powder

1 cup almond meal

6 tablespoons milk

1/4 cup powdered sugar

1. Melt the butter and dark chocolate in a bowl set over a saucepan of simmering water. Set aside to cool slightly.

2. In the bowl of an electric mixer beat the eggs and 7 tablespoons sugar until the mixture reaches ribbon stage and is pale and thick, about 3 minutes. Mix in the melted chocolate and butter.

3. Combine the flour, baking powder and almond meal. Alternating with the milk, add these dry ingredients to the batter. Spoon the mixture into a container, cover tightly and chill overnight.

4. Heat the oven to 325 degrees. Place the one-fourth cup granulated sugar and the powdered sugar in two separate shallow bowls. Scoop out 2 tablespoons of dough per cookie and form into a ball. Roll each ball of dough in granulated sugar, then in the powdered sugar.

5. Place on parchment-lined baking sheets and bake in the oven. Cookies will flatten and crack during baking, and are done when the dough is no longer gooey in the center when tested with toothpick, about 20 to 24 minutes. Place on rack to cool.

Each cookie: 170 calories; 3 grams protein; 20 grams carbohydrates; 2 grams fiber; 9 grams fat; 5 grams saturated fat; 33 mg. cholesterol; 132 mg. sodium.