Soft Bake Chocolate Chip Cookies

I am going to ask you a question. And I would urge you to think very carefully about your answer. Because while I might make out like it's all fun and games, there is a wrong answer and I will not-so-secretly secretly judge you if you get it wrong. Okay. Here goes.

*Deep breath*
...
Are you ready?
...
How do you like your cookie?

I watched the movie "Think like a man" last night which is why I feel the need to clarify that I am talking about baked goods here ;p

There are two answers to that question. (Only one of them is correct). You either like your cookie crispy/crunchy or you like your cookie the best other way; soft and slightly chewy.

If you answered crispy/crunchy, then I think it's safe to say that this; me and you,  isn't going to work out. We're just too different. It's not you, it's ... hang on, it's definitely you! You're weird!

If you like your cookie the normal way, you're in luck! Because I have some amazing chocolate chip cookies for you. These are soft and chewy and choc-full of chocolate chips; just like every good cookie should be! The secret ingredient to making them all tender-y and soft is cornflour. Cornflour in cookies are taking the cookie world by storm right now, and while mine look nothing like the the ones in Sweet Pea's blog (hers are so cute and puffy!), I'm certain they taste just as good! But don't take my word for it - give them a go :)

Recipe adapted (only very slightly changed) from this one from Sweet Pea's Kitchen.

Ingredients
2 cups plain flour
2 teaspoons cornflour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
170g butter, softened
3/4 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup white sugar
1 egg
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 cup milk chocolate chips

1. Preheat the oven to 180C / Gas Mark 4 / 350F. Line two baking sheets with grease proof paper.
2. In a medium bowl, combine the flour, cornflour, baking soda and salt; set aside
3. Using an electric mixer, cream the butter and both sugars on medium speed until light and fluffy, about 2 minutes. 
4. Scrape down the sides of the bowl then add the egg and vanilla and beat until well combined.
5. Add half of the flour mixture and mix for 15 seconds. Add the remaining flour mixture and beat until just incorporated. Fold in the chocolate chips.
6. Roll about a tablespoon's worth of dough into balls and place onto the prepared baking sheets, leaving about 2 inches between them. Bake for 8 - 10 minutes or until barely golden brown around the edges.
7. Let cookies cool on sheets for 5 minutes before transferring cookies to wire racks to cool completely.

Makes about 36 cookies.

Reese's Peanut Butter Cup Chocolate Cookies

My friend Susan sent me this WhatsApp message today: "That blog of yours ... been a bit lazy recently?" Sure, she might have had a point but in my defence, she was trying to get back at me for forcing her to go running (as she had promised she would).
Oh wait, hang on, that wasn't in my defence at all. Okay, I'll try again. In my defence, since I last blogged, I have moved my entire room into a whole other entire room (I'm hoping my repetitive use of the word 'entire' helps to exaggerate the magnitude of the task appropriately), got a new job and finally, visited Birmingham which is a land far far away.

Plus as, Einstein may or may not have said, "it is not the frequency of the blogging that counts, rather the quality of the posts" and boy, this post is a great one! Or rather the recipe is. The rambling that accompanies the recipe is mediocre at best.

These cookies are soft but firm, chocolatey but not overwhelmingly so, and they're choc full of Reese's peanut butter cups which always makes for a winning recipe! My friends from my previous job and I have been pretty good at holding tea parties about twice a year and I made these for the last one. I dare say they were a hit :)

These are from the wonderful Annie's Eats; who has graduated from just being my foodie crush to being my superwoman inspiration!

Yield: 16 large cookies

Ingredients
1 1/2 cups plus 2 tbsp plain flour
6 tbsp cocoa
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp coarse salt
85g unsalted butter, at room temperature
1/4 cup plus 2 tbsp. smooth peanut butter
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 large egg
1 tsp vanilla extract
2 tbsp milk
2 cups coarsely chopped Reese's peanut butter cups

1. Preheat the oven to 180C / Gas Mark 4 / 350F. Line baking sheets with grease proof paper.
2. In a medium bowl, combine the flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, and salt. 
3. In the bowl of an electric mixer, combine the butter, peanut butter, and sugars. Beat on medium-high speed until light and fluffy, 1-2 minutes. 
4. Add in the egg, vanilla extract, and milk. Beat until smooth. 
5. With the mixer on low speed, mix in the dry ingredients until just combined. Add in 1 1/2 cups of the chopped peanut butter cups and fold in gently with a spatula.
6. Roll a heaped tablespoon of dough into a ball, one at a time, and space 2 - 3 inches apart on the baking sheet. Gently press a few pieces of the remaining Reese's peanut butter cups into the top of each of the dough balls. 
7. Bake for 12 - 14 minutes, rotating the pans halfway through baking. (The cookies may seem too soft immediately after coming out of the oven but they will set as they cool. You don't want to overbake them).
8. Let cool on the baking sheets about 10 minutes, then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely. Store in an airtight container.

Puffy Peanut Butter, Chocolate Chip and Golden Oreo Cookies

Lemme tell you something about these cookies.They're great! So great that ...

1) They have turned mere mortals into baking converts! I first made these with Susan (She's obsessed with peanut butter, carrot cake and thinks she is amazing ;p). She wanted a total peanut butter hit so we put peanut butter chips, peanut M&Ms and Reese's Pieces in them (That's another great thing about these cookies, feel free to swap the chocolate chips and Oreos for other things - smarties, m&ms, chunks of your favourite bar of chocolate, anything!).
They were so simple to make that when they were all ready and in the oven, she kept saying: "But that can't be it. We can't be finished already". But that was it. We really were finished. They really are that simple! Half an hour after you start, you've got hot cookies!

And FYI, Susan has gone on to bake white chocolate and macadamia nut cookies, peanut butter banana bread and a French yogurt cake. All because of these cookies ;p

2) God himself endorses these cookies! Well, I like to think He endorses everything I bake but I made these for Church and got a text from the Pastor's wife (Monica) that evening saying how good they were. And then a couple of days later, the Pastor himself (Mark) texted to say he really enjoyed them. I don't think Mark has eaten any of my baking before and I just assumed he didn't have a sweet tooth but a couple of weeks later, Monica asked for the recipe as Mark had been hassling her to make them.

So there you have it. Make these cookies!

Quick aside - Isnt' it funny how in this post, I was lamenting my genetic inability to bake cookies and muffins and now I'm like the cookie queen! Cookie queen is a title I'm trying on for size and I really like it!

Adapted from How Sweet It Is

Makes about 20 cookies

2 cups plain flour
1/2 tsp baking soda
113g butter
6 tablespoons of creamy peanut butter (I bought crunchy by mistake and I like to think it gave it a little sumthin' sumthin')
1 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup caster sugar
1 egg + 1 egg yolk, at room temperature
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1/2 cup milk chocolate chips
1/2 cup dark chocolate chips
1/2 cup Golden Oreos broken into bits. Regular Oreos would work too.

1 - Preheat oven to 170C / Gas Mark 3 / 325F. Line your baking trays with grease proof paper.
2 - Add peanut butter and butter to a microwave safe bowl, then heat in 30 second increments until melted. Let cool completely.

3 - Mix the flour and baking soda in a bowl and set aside.
4 - In another bowl, mix the the cooled butter/peanut butter and sugars until they are combined. Add the egg, egg yolk, and vanilla and stir until mixed.

Gradually add flour and mix until a dough forms - it will look crumbly at first, but it will come together. Use your hands to bring it all together if you want.
5 - Fold in chocolate chips and Oreo bits.

6 - Shape the dough into balls the size of a golf ball.

Place on your baking tray two inches apart and bake for 10-12 minutes or until the edges are slightly brown. The centres should be soft and puffy. Do not over bake. Let cool completely.

Snickers Cookies and Marathon Running

I officially lost my mind a couple of weeks ago ... more than usual, I mean.

My sister got a charity place with the Salvation Army on the London 2012 marathon and had been trying to convince me to do it with her. "No way Jose" was my (very sensible) reaction. I've always wanted to run a marathon - just once - and boy will I milk that one time marathon every day for the rest of my life.

"When I ran a marathon ..." will be how I reply to questions from friends about where we should go for dinner.

"I learnt several things when running a marathon; the most important of which ..." will be how I start the debate with my future toddlers about why they should eat their vegetables. 

You get the point :)

Anyway, I wasn't ready to run a marathon just yet. And then I spoke to my sister one day and she gave me a spiel about how this wasn't just any marathon but it was LONDON TWO THOUSAND AND TWELVE, Olympic year, no London marathon would ever be the same ... blah blah. Long story short, don't ever give my sister the chance to convince you to do something because ... oh, sorry, went off on a tangent there, long story short, on the 22nd of April 2012, I will be running the longest I have ever run in my entire life. Hey, if a 100 year old man can do it, I can too right? Right?

Anyway, the only plus side to running a marathon is I've heard that with all the training, I can pretty much eat what I want without putting on weight; which will mean lots of cookies whoop whoop. Check these out - if you like Snickers, the big soft biteful in the middle of these cookies is amazeballs :)

Recipe from Bakers Royale who adapted it from Cook's Illustrated.

Makes 24 - 30 3inch cookies

Prep: Heat oven to 190C/Gas Mark 5/ 375F. Line baking tray with grease proof paper

Ingredients

2 cups plain flour

1/2 tsp baking soda

227g butter

3/4 cup brown sugar

1/2 cup granulated sugar

3/4 teaspoon salt

2 tsps vanilla extract

2 large eggs

5 Snickers bars, each sliced into 6 pieces

1 cup chocolate chips

1 - Combine flour and baking soda in a bowl; set aside

2 - Place 140g of the butter in non-stick saucepan over medium-high heat until melted, about 2 minutes. Continue cooking and using the handle of the pan to swirl the butter around. Swirl butter constantly until it becomes dark golden brown in colour and gives off a nutty aroma; 1 - 3 minutes. 

3 - Remove saucepan from the heat and transfer browned butter to a large heatproof bowl. Stir in the remaining butter into the hot butter until completely melted. 

4 - Add both sugars, salt, and vanilla to brown butter mixture and whisk until full incorporated. 

5 - Add eggs and whisk until mixture is smooth with no sugar lumps remaining, about 30 seconds.Rest mixture for 3 minutes, then whisk for another 30 seconds. Repeat process of resting and whisking 2 more times until mixture is thick, smooth, and shiny. 

6 - Using a rubber spatula or wooden spoon, stir in flour mixture until just combined, about 1 minute. Stir in chocolate chips giving dough final stir to ensure no flour pockets remain.

7 - Scoop out 2 tablespoons of dough, flatten it into a round disc and place a Snickers slice on top. Fold edges over Snickers to seal it. Place cookies 2 inches apart on grease proof paper lined baking trays.

8 - Bake cookies one sheet at a time until cookies are golden brown and still puffy, and edges have begun to set but centers are still soft, about 10 to 14 minutes. Cool cookies.

Weight Watchers Mini Double Choc Chip and Orange Cookies and Giveaway Winner!

First things first, the winner of my giveaway (picked by using random.org) to win a copy of James Ramsden's 'Small Adventures in Cooking' was this comment:

YAY a giveaway!!!

Hmm considering I have never really tried to impress anyone with my cooking ... ( or maybe I have) ... I guess it'll have to be my chicken/salmon fried rice (its always on demand and it is so easy and fast to make! Oh and EXTREMELY TASTY :-P) 

Twitter follower.
beelatweets

Congratulations Beelatweets!!!

Min: Max: Result:8Powered by RANDOM.ORG

And for today's recipe:

Recipe Source - Weight Watchers Your Week Magazine

5 Pro Points per 4 cookies

Makes 24 cookies

Ingredients

100g low fat spread

10g artificial sweetener

1 egg, beaten

Grated zest of 1 orange

100g plain flour

20g cocoa powder

40g milk chocolate chips (I used white chocolate chips)

1 - Preheat the oven to gas mark 4/180C/fan oven 160C

2 - Beat the low fat spread and the sweetener together until combined (about 2 minutes)

3 - Beat in the egg, a little at a time, and then beat in the orange zest

4 - Combine the flour and cocoa powder into the low fat spread and beat in until combined, then stir in half of the chocolate chips. Cover with cling film and chill in the fridge for 1 hour or until starting to firm up

5 - Line two large baking trays with grease proof paper and set aside

6 - Scoop 24 teaspoons of the cookie mix onto the baking trays, spacing the spoonfuls well apart, then pat into flat rounds with your fingertips - the dough will be sticky, so be gentle as you pat them into shape

7 - Press in the remaining chocolate chips and bake for 15 minutes until crisp. 

8 - Leave to cool and store in an airtight container. They will keep for 2 - 3 days.

Cinnamon Roll Cookies

Last week was kinda tough for me - I made the decision to let go of someone in my life. Letting go is difficult at the best of times - especially for me as I'm a natural hoarder. I hang on to books, clothes, letters, CDs; pretty much everything - but it's even harder to let go of someone that I've fought to keep in my life in the past and if life was perfect, someone I'd never have to let go of. Anyway, c'est la vie... and enough about me. Let's talk about my baking as I intend to bake my way through my funk! Hang on, that's about me too ... ah well, we'll talk about it anyway.

I made these cookies for church. I go to this great Church called 'Equippers' and for the first time ever, I can say I actually really enjoy church! I can't wait to go on a Sunday and I feel like I've missed out if I miss one Sunday. It is a church where everyone pitches into the life of the church and for a long while, I wasn't contributing anything till recently when I started baking. We have a break between worship and the sermon for tea and coffee and whenever I can (I'm aiming for every week), I make something to eat with our teas and coffees. So far I've made Rocky Road and brownies and I'm constantly on the lookout for suitable recipes as it has to be stuff that is already portioned or easy to portion and also easy to transport. So there will be a LOT of cookies and bars in my church's future!

I love cinnamon and bookmarked these cookies as soon as I saw them. Now, I have to admit that I wasn't expecting great things from these cookies as y'know, they don't contain chocolate, or peanut butter, or Oreos (all the staples of a great ... anything) in them ... but they are AMAZING! They're soft and each mouthful is choc-full of cinnamon roll taste. And the slightly coffee flavoured icing is a stroke of genius! Thanks to Sing for your Supper for the recipe!

If I had a big enough freezer, I'd have a roll of this dough always in it, ready to cut and bake wonderful cookies!

Ingredients

For the cookies

226g unsalted butter, softened

1/2 cup brown sugar

1/2 cup golden caster sugar

2 eggs

2 tsps vanilla

2 tsps cinnamon

3 cups flour

2 teaspoons baking powder

1 tsp salt

For the filling

57g unsalted butter, very soft

1/4 cup + 2 tablespoons brown sugar

2 teaspoons cinnamon

For the icing

2 cups icing sugar

2 tablespoons melted butter

1/2 teaspoon instant espresso powder

2 teaspoons vanilla

2 - 4 tablespoons milk

To make cookies

1 - In a medium bowl, combine the flour, cinnamon, baking powder and salt

2 - In a large bowl, cream the butter and sugars together until light and fluffy. 

Add the vanilla and eggs one at a time, and beat until just combined. Scrape down the sides of the bowl

3 - Add half of the flour mixture and mix until just combined. Add the remaining flour mixture and beat until thoroughly combined, scraping the bowl as needed

4 - Scrape the dough into a ball in the centre of the bowl, cover with cling film and chill in the freezer for 30 minutes, or in the fridge for at least an hour.

5 - Once the dough is chilled, divide it into two equal halves. Place one half back in the bowl and put it back in the fridge. On a large piece of cling film, pat the first half of the dough into a rectangle about nine inches by 12 inches and about half an inch thick

6 - Place half of the butter on the dough and spread it all the way to the edges. Sprinkle half of the brown sugar evenly over the buttered dough and press the sugar into the dough using the back of a tablespoon. Finally, sprinkle half of the cinnamon evenly over the dough.

7 - Use the plastic wrap to tightly roll the dough into a log.Place the log in the freezer for 30 minutes or the refrigerator for at least an hour. 

8 - Repeat with the remaining half of the dough and filling ingredients.

9 - Preheat the oven to 180C / 350F/ Gas Mark 4. Line a baking sheet with grease proof paper

10 - After the dough has chilled again, slice each log into one inch slices (about 20 per log). Place on the prepared baking sheets and bake for 10 to 12 minutes. 

Transfer to a wire cooling rack and allow to cool completely before icing

To make the icing
 11 -  In a medium bowl, combine the butter and instant espresso powder. 
 12 - Add the icing sugar and vanilla and whisk until it just comes together. 
 13 - Next, add the milk, one tablespoon at a time until the desired consistency is reached. It should be thin enough to drizzle, but thicker than a glaze.
 14 - With the cookies on a wire cooling rack set over parchment paper, drizzle the icing over the them with your whisk. Allow the cookies to set up for a few minutes before stacking or storing.

Come Dine with Vickii - Dessert!

You must know me well enough by now to not be surprised when I tell you that my dessert was the first part of my 'Come Dine with Me' menu I decided on.

And I was pretty set on these Crème brûlées from the get-go. The story with these is I went round to my sister's a couple of years ago (co-incidentally after they had just done their 'Come Dine with Me'. Their group scored though. And they won!) and she had a few of these left over in the fridge. And I might have maybe eaten a couple all of them. This is why I always go and visit my sister when I'm in Birmingham. Her and her husband are total foodies and they see me rarely enough that they still consider it a treat so they ALWAYS feed me. 

Side note: Sometimes people think that because I bake and cook, I might be overly critical of other people's cooking or just prefer to do the cooking myself. NOT TRUE. I love love love being cooked and baked for and never ever think 'I could do this better' or any thoughts along those lines. So please; let the dinner invites roll on in.

A few months after I first tried this wonderful dessert; my sister and brother-in-law were hosting a pre-Christmas dinner and I begged for them to make these; thereby forcing them to make two desserts. It was a tough job eating them both but someone had to do it ;p And I might have maybe helped some other people finish theirs; I don't recall. After that though, she wised up, gave me the recipe and told me to make them myself. They're so easy to make and pretty damn amazing! I think it's up there with the best of the Crème brûlées. And there's none of that fiddly stuff that usually goes along with making custard. They're also really good without the caramelised sugar on top. I guess they wouldn't be called Crème brûlée then but they're still something pretty damn amazing; albeit nameless.

I went to some posh Michelin-starred restaurant once and they served their Crème brûlées with two warm, gorgeous biscuity things on the side. I couldn't remember what they were called (I believe the name starts with an 'M' though) so I decided to look for an alternative to serve mine with. I settled on these Nigella-style macaroons from her 'Nigella Express' book as I liked the simple flavours and they were quick to make. They were alright. I think they went well with the Crème brûlée but I don't think they're wonderful enough to make on their own. Yet another recipe from this particular Nigella book I'm not too impressed with. 

I hope you've enjoyed my 'Come Dine with Me' series. Till next time :D

White Chocolate Crème brûlée (I got this recipe from my sister and I'm not sure what the original source is so if I'm plagiarising; I'm sorry!)

Makes - 6

1 punnet raspberries

400ml thick double cream

1 vanilla pod or 2 tsps vanilla essence

150g white chocolate (I would recommend really good quality chocolate)

A few tablespoons golden caster sugar

6 egg yolks

1 - Divide washed raspberries into 6 ramekins

2 - Melt white chocolate in a bain marie

3 - Take melted chocolate off the heat and stir in the egg yolks until combined

4 - Put cream in a saucepan, add vanilla and bring to boil over a low heat; stirring regularly to prevent a skin forming on top

5 - Add the chocolate and egg mixture to the cream and simmer; whisking continuously until it is custardy and coats the back of a spoon

6 - Divide custard among the 6 ramekins; allow to cool then chill in the fridge for a few hours (I usually leave them overnight)

7 - A few hours before you serve them, take them out of the fridge evenly sprinkle the tops with a layer of caster sugar

8 - If you're lucky enough to own a torch; torch the tops until the sugar melts, browns and bubbles slightly.

9 - I put mine under a hot grill, turning every minute or so and keeping a very close eye on them

10 - Put back in the fridge until they are ready to serve

Chocolate Macaroons 

Makes about 25

2 egg whites

200g ground almonds

30g cocoa powder

175g icing sugar

1 - Preheat the oven to 200C/ Gas Mark 6 and line a baking sheet with parchment paper

2 - Mix egg whites (unbeaten) with the ground almonds, cocoa powder and icing sugar until you have a sticky but cohesive mixture

3 - Fill a large bowl with cold water and dip your hands in to wet them before rolling the mixture into little balls the size of small walnuts. You will probably have to redunk your hands to keep wetting them as you go

4 - Arrange the macaroon-balls on the lined baking sheet and put them in the oven to bake for 11 minutes. 

It's hard to tell when they're ready, as they will seem squishy but they harden up a little as they cool and should be damp within; that's what makes them chewy, so don't worry that the underneaths of the macaroons look sticky.

Peanut Butter Blossom Cookies, Chocolate Chip Tea Cookies and Baking Resolutions

Happy New Year everyone!! I hope you all had a lovely Christmas and a slightly more eventful New Year’s Eve than I did. I fell asleep at 11pm on the 31^st so I slept right through the countdown and all the fireworks. As a result, the fact that it is a new year hasn’t hit me quite yet. I hope it hits soon!

The last cookies I made on my cookie baking spree are these Peanut Butter Blossom Cookies and Chocolate Chip Tea Cookies. I'm not sure why they're called 'Tea' cookies but when they taste this good, who cares? And I can't believe it's taken me three whole posts to toot my own horn about how amazingly all my cookies turned out! Actually, I might have already hinted at how great I , ahem, I mean, they were, I can't remember ;) But considering that before that day, any thoughts of cookie dough (or any kind of dough for that matter) made me break out in a cold sweat, I was pretty impressed with my efforts! So impressed that I now want to take on the dough world! On that note, here are my baking resolutions for 2011:

 - Bake bread. Bake lots of bread. Bake lots of bread style stuff; cinnamon swirls, stollen, honey rolls, regular bread, bread, bread bread!

- Bake a pie. I have never baked a pie before but on my list are Pecan pie, Apple pie and Pumpkin pie.

- Bake more cookies

- Bake more cheesecakes

- Practice decorating layer cakes

Basically there's lots of dough in my future. I can't wait!

These recipes are both from Brown Eyed Baker. Learn her name as I'm going to try out a gazillion of her recipes next year! Till then, I leave you with these.

Peanut Butter Blossom Cookies

Oh, we don't have Hershey's kisses in England, which is what the original recipe calls for, so I used Lindt mini chocolate balls. I think they were the perfect size, and Lindt chocolate is far superior to Hersheys, so I was happy. But you can use either - or any other chocolate of around that size.

Ingredients
48 Lindt Chocolate Balls, unwrapped
½ cup shortening
¾ cup peanut butter
1/3 cup granulated sugar
1/3 cup packed light brown sugar
1 egg
2 tablespoons milk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 ½ cups flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
½ teaspoon salt
Sugar

1 - Preheat oven to 190° C / Gas Mark 5. Remove wrappers from chocolates and put the unwrapped chocolate in a plastic bag in the freezer.

2 - Beat shortening and peanut butter in a large bowl until well blended.

3 - Add the granulated sugar and brown sugar; beat until fluffy.

4 - Add egg, milk and vanilla; beat well.

5 - Stir together flour, baking soda and salt; gradually beat into peanut butter mixture.

6 - Shape dough into 1-inch balls. Roll in sugar; place on ungreased cookie sheet.

7 - Bake 8-10 minutes or until lightly browned. Immediately press a chocolate kiss into the centre of each cookie; cookie will crack around edges. Remove from cookie sheet to wire rack. Cool completely.

Makes about 4 dozen.

Chocolate Chip Tea Cookies

Ingredients
2 cups plain flour
226g butter
½ cup icing sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1-1/2 cups miniature chocolate chips, divided

1 – Preheat oven to 190°C / Gas Mark 5

2 – Beat butter and sugar with an electric mixer until fluffy. Add vanilla and mix well.

3 - Gradually add flour. Stir in 1 cup miniature chocolate chips.

4 - Shape into 1” balls and place 2 inches apart on an ungreased cookie sheet. Bake 10-12 minutes.

5 - Remove to wire rack to cool.

6 - Place ½ cup miniature chocolate chips in a sealed plastic bag and microwave until melted; about 30 seconds. 

7 - Snip off a small corner of the bag and drizzle chocolate on top of cold cookies. Chill for 5 minutes or until chocolate is set. 

Store at room temperature.