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Simple Chocolate Chip Cookies


Sooo, it's still the school holidays in Cardiff this week, and the spectacle of two ravenous teenagers rampaging around the house foraging is a fairly regular occurence. In an effort to stave off hunger, and boredom, Ben and I decided to revisit one of his favourite - and easy peasy - recipes for chocolate chip cookies. It's taken from a cookery book I bought him when he was about 7, and first starting to want to help Mummy in the kitchen.


These have seen many, many outings over the years, and Ben and I have made them together every time (admittedly, quite often with me fighting my kitchen control freakery, but I am trying to mellow, honest).


One memorable version of these invoved Ben wanting to use pink food dye. The resulting pink cookies with brown spots were fairly reminiscent, for those of you who remember, of Mr Blobby. Eating one felt, on one level, so wrong, yet on another, so right. For those of you who have no idea what I'm talking about, don't worry. That is Not A Bad Thing. Not at all. In fact, count yourself lucky.

Simple Chocolate Chip Cookies (adapted from Usborne's Children's Book of Baking)

Makes 12

75g softened unsalted butter
75g light brown soft sugar
75g caster sugar
1 medium egg
1 tspn vanilla essence
175g plain flour
1/2 tspn baking powder
150g chocolate chips

Preheat the oven to 160 fan / 180 conventional / 350F / Gas 4.

Grease a couple of baking trays and set aside.

Cream the butter and two sugars together until smooth and creamy. Add the egg and vanilla, and beat well to mix. Then add the flour and baking powder and mix well until smooth. Stir in the chocolate chips so that they are evenly distributed.


Scoop the cookie dough onto the baking sheets so that they form round heaps, evenly spaced apart (I use an old fashioned ice cream scoop  (2 inch diameter / size 30) for this - as with cupcakes and muffin batter - as it is easy to make sure that they are all the same size, and the dough comes off the scoop easily).


Using a fork, press down the cookies to flatten them slightly.


Bake for 10 minutes until golden; remove and let cool on the tray for a few minutes before transferring to a wire rack.


These cookies are lovely as a quick snack. They are fudgy in the middle and there is a hefty dose of chocolate chips which retain that all important gooey factor. You can ring the changes by replacing the 150g of chocolate chips with any combination of ingredients you like - cranberries and white chocolate, chopped hazelnuts and dark chocolate, peanut butter chips, chocolate M&Ms - the limit is your imagination.

[Oh, and I know, cookies, school milk bottle and a stripy straw? ClichĂ©d right? Mike feels it may be a tad contrived. Maybe. Oh well, Yep. Absolutely. But I love it. Suits a purpose too.  And the cookies still taste good.  Didn't stop us polishing off the 12 in about as many minutes! So no apologies here. :) ]

Enjoy,

Susie

Comments

  1. Susie:

    These sound so good!

    I am always looking for the perfect cookie etc :~D

    I will give these a try.

    Thanks to you and Ben for sharing!

    Have a Joyful Day!

    Charlie

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks Charlie,

      They are definitely worth a try - I'd love to hear how you get on.

      Have a good day, too :)

      Delete
  2. Hahaha, oh Mr Blobby, I must admit I was pretty terrified of him as a child. Unlike Mr Blobby, these cookies look amazing. I'm always on the look out for a good choc chip cookie recipe so I'm going to bookmark this :)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Yes, we had to find some clips on You Tube to show Ben why we were joking about Mr Blobby. Glad you like them :)

      Delete
  3. I love chocolate chip cookies - you just cant go wrong with a classic. Coincidentally I made some last night :) Love your food styling and photos :)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Absolutely can't go wrong with chocolate chip cookies - do you have any left ;)

      Thanks for your comments about my photos - I really enjoy that part of blogging too, but have so much still to learn. Hopefully, I'm on the right track :)

      Delete
  4. These cookies look perfect...and ideal for staving off rampaging teenagers! :-)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks Laura, yes they are (but not for long as they mysteriously vanish!) :)

      Delete
  5. Anyone who could resist one (or five) of these would have an iron will!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks CC, *mumbles shamefully*, I may have had a few more than five ... ;)

      Delete

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