In a stand mixer cream together the butter and sugars. Mix in the eggs and vanilla.
In a separate bowl, add the flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, baking powder, salt, and protein powder. Mix together well.
Gradually add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients and mix well.
add the dark chocolate chips and mix them in.
Add orange candies if using and mix them in gently so they don’t break. If a few break that’s fine.
Place bowl in fridge for at least 20 minutes for the dough to set.
Preheat oven to 350 degrees
Line 2 cookie baking sheets with parchment paper.
Use a 2 oz ice cream scoop to scoop the dough onto the cookie sheets. Don’t press them down, just leave them like that. Make 3 rows of 4. You should get 13 cookies.
If you need to, gently press extra Candies onto the cookies before baking so that bright orange candy shows!
Bake in a 350° (F) oven for 8-10 minutes, or until the cookies are done/firm around the edges when pressed. They will still be soft in the middle and just a little puffed up.
Remove from oven and cool