Place the butter, brown sugar, and chocolate in that order in a medium saucepan. Over low heat, warm the ingredients until melted and smooth, stirring frequently. Transfer mixture to the bowl of a stand mixer.

Sift flour, cocoa, baking soda, salt, espresso powder, cinnamon and cloves together into a medium bowl.

Insert paddle attachment into stand mixer. On low speed, add eggs one at a time. Mix in vanilla extract.

Add dry ingredients in 4 additions. Mix just until combined and the dough is smooth and shiny. The sides of the bowl will be clean and the dough will form a ball.

Turn the dough out onto a work surface. Divide in half and wrap each half in plastic wrap.

The dough will be slightly warm at this point. Let cool to room temperature before continuing or refrigerate up to 3 days. Let the dough come back to room temperature before rolling into cookies.

Working with a tablespoon of dough at a time, roll the dough between your palms to form a shiny ball about 1 ¼-inches in diameter.

Roll each ball in the granulated sugar to coat then the powdered sugar. Place the balls about 1 inch apart on prepared baking sheets.

Bake the cookies 10-12 minutes, rotating the baking sheets from top to bottom and front to back halfway through.

The cookies should be slightly firm around the edges and soft and crackled on the top. It’s better to under-bake than overbake!

Remove baking sheets from oven and let cookies rest on baking sheet 2 minutes. Using a wide metal spatula, carefully transfer the cookies to a wire rack to cool completely.

Repeat with any remaining dough, and let the baking sheets cool between batches.

Once cooled, store in an airtight container at room temperature up to 5 days. Or, they can be frozen up to 2 months. Enjoy!