Best Chocolate Chip Cookies

When your toddler has run you ragged for the last 3 hours (it was only 9am!) and Grandad has now taken her to the park and to feed the ducks...what do you do? Bake some chocolate chip cookies of course. This is my 'go to' recipe for such an occasions.

You know how good those bags of fresh large chocolate chip cookies can be from the supermarket? Well, these are better, and can be frozen so you can whip some out, pop them in the oven, and wham - chocolate cookies whenever there is desperate need.

 

125g dark chocolate 
150g plain flour 
30g cocoa powder (sieved) 
1 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda 
½ teaspoon salt 
125g soft unsalted butter 
75g soft light brown sugar 
50g white sugar 
1 teaspoon vanilla extract 
1 large egg (cold from the fridge) 
200g chocolate chips/chopped chocolate (your choice of dark, milk white - ive used all three in these pictures)

1. Preheat the oven to 170°C/gas mark 3/325ºF. Melt the 125g / 4oz dark chocolate either in the microwave or in a heatproof dish over a pan of simmering water.

2. Put the flour, cocoa, bicarbonate of soda and salt into a bowl.

3. Cream the butter and sugars in another bowl (mixer is handy here). Add the melted chocolate and mix together.

4. Beat in the vanilla extract and cold egg, and then mix in the dry ingredients.

5. Finally stir in the chocolate chips/chunks.

6. Original recipe used an ice cream scoop to  make 12 large biscuits (the size of the supermarket ones) on two lined baking trays. In the pictures I have used dessert spoons and make approximately 22 biscuits. Do not flatten them.

7. Cook for 18 minutes if doing large biscuits, or 15 minutes if doing smaller ones, testing with a cake tester to make sure it comes out semi-clean and not wet with cake batter. If you pierce a chocolate chip, try again.

8. Leave to cool slightly on the baking sheet for 4-5 minutes, then transfer them to a cooling rack to harden as they cool

Notes:
1. These can be frozen  if you put the baking tray of cookie mix in the freezer. Leave to harden and then you can put the blobs of cookie dough in freezer bags for 'emergencies'. Cooking times may be a few minute slonger for frozen ones.

2. Original recipe had 350g of chocolate chips/chunks in the mixture but I find a bit less works just fine.
3. Recipe adapted from Nigella Lawson recipe

Swirled Cheesecake Brownies

I noticed these in a magazine whilst staying at my mums. My brother and I were at a loose end and my little baby was having a nap so it seemed like the perfect opportunity to make these. Lovely fudgey brownie with gorgeous white chocolate cheesecake type yumminess swirled through it....scrummy!

200g dark chocolate, or high cocoa milk chocolate
200g white chocolate
250g Butter
300g caster sugar
4 eggs
75g plain flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
50g cocoa powder
200g light cream cheese


1. Preheat oven to gas 4, 180C and line a 23cm/9in square tin or equivalent

2. Melt milkor dark chocolate in a bowl over simmering water. Melt the white chocolate in the same way.

3. Beat the butter and sugar and add the eggs one at a time. Then whisk for 3-4 minutes.

4. Fold the melted milk/white chocolate into the butter mixture the fold in the flour, baking powder, cocoa powder and salt.

5. Add the crean cheese to the white chocolate and whisk until smooth.

6. Pour half of the milk chocolate mix into the tin, spoon in dollops of the white chocolate mix and then fill the gaps with the remaining milk chocolate mix. Swirl with a knife to gain a marbled effect.

 7. Bake for 45 minutes until almost set with  a slight wobble in the centre.

8. Leave to cool before cutting or you will have quite a mess on your hands.



Notes:
1. I found it was better not to swirl and mix the two too much or you couldnt distinguish the two when cooked
2. I had  to cook this for longer than stated but its up to individual preference to achive your brownie consistency.
3. There was an awful lot of mixture and these are quite rich. You could easily make half the mixture instead.
4. Original recipe found in a recent Tesco magazine.

Chocolate Weetabix Traybake

So while on maternity leave waiting for baby to arrive, I have been searching for new things to bake and I came across this recipe on the BBC Good Food recipe. I had also run out of eggs at the time and so needed to find a recipe that didnt need them!

This reminds me of something my Aunt used to make and it is really quick and simple to make.

150g butter
1 tsp Vanilla extract
130g Self raising flour
80g Dessicated coconut
200g Catser sugar
1 tbsp cocoa powder
3 Weetabix, crushed up

Icing
100g Dark/plain chocolate
1 tbsp Butter
3 tbsp Icing sugar


1. Preheat over to 180 C or Gas mark 4 and line a 9" / 22cm square (or equivalent) baking tray with greaseproof paper.

2. Melt butter and vanilla extract in a saucepan over a low heat

3. While this is melting mix together all of the dry ingredients.

4. Add the melter butter to the dry ingredients and combine until well mixed. This may take a bit of effort but do persevere!

5. Tip mix into baking tray and press down evenlyinto corners. Then place in oven for 20 mins and once cooked, allow to cool for an hour

6.  Melt the butter and chocolate together for the icing. Add the icing sugar to get a nice spreadable icing consistency. I found, I didnt need the whole 3 tbsp. Spread evenly across the surface and leave to set before cutting.


Notes:
1. Do get the quantity of dry ingredients and butter pretty exact. I was a bit too relaxed with the flour and added too much then had trouble combining all the ingredients so had to add a smidge more butter, which is a pain as you have to melt it first.
2. Original recipe from BBC Good Food website

Chocolate melting moments

These are rather nice cross between a cake and a biscuit chocolate treats.

It is another of my neighbours recipes and I was rather happy when she first popped round with some of these, very moorish!  I have since made these a fair few times (the raw dough is also quite nice, but if you eat too much of that you have less biscuits).

150g unsalted butter diced at room temperature
75g icing sugarm sifted
25g cornflour
120g self raising flour
30g cocoa powder

Filling
30g unsalted butter slightly softened
30g icing sugar plus extra for dusting
2 tsp cocoa powder


1. Preheat oven to 190C or Gas mark 5 and arrange about 12 paper cases in a bun tin.

2.Cream together butter and sugar until light, cramy and fluffy.

3. Sift and add the cornflour, flour and cocoa and combine. This should form a soft squidgy dough.

4. Divide dough ito roughly 30g pieces and roll into balls (about the size of a walnut). Press a shallow dip in the top of each one, then transfer to the paper cases, gently pressing them down into the paper cases.

5. Bake for 15-20 minutes, then remove from oven and leave to cool.
 6. For the filling, cream the butter icing sugar and cocoa in a small bowl until pale and fluffy. Fill each shallow hole with about half a teaspoon of the filling or use a piping bag.

7. Dust with icing sugar and set aside for about an hour to set. At this point you could now take out the paper cases.

Notes:
1. Im afraid I dont know where this recipe came from, it is another of my neighbours and so im always happy when she drops off a  little tub of these.
2. I did make the ones in the picture and forgot to dust with icing sugar, oops!

Picnic Slice

This recipe is my Nans and I loved going over there when I was little as she ALWAYS had a tin with some of these in. She would save me a corner piece as she knew I liked the edges wher ethey went a bit chewy. Plus, she seemed to cut them into bigger squares than when my mum would make them at home.

I have absolutely no idea where the name came from for these, but I guess they would be good for a picnic providing its not so hot that the chocolate base melts. There isnt loads of chocolate in these, but they are one of my favourites and still have a choclate element so I thought they warranted being on here. I also get asked a lot for this recipe when I make them, so here it is...

350g/12oz Chocolate (Dark choc contrasts well with the sweet coconut)
100g/3oz Butter
200g/6oz Caster sugar
2 Beaten eggs
200g/6oz Dessicated coconut
100g/3oz Sultanas
100g/3oz Glace cherries, quartered


1. Break chocolate into pieces and melt using your preferred method for doing this.

2. Line a standard sized (12"x 9" or 31cm x 23cm)  baking tray with greaseproof paper and pour in chocolate. Make sure the chocolate is relatively evenly spread and comes slightly up the sides as this will help when getting the whole thing out later. Leave to set in fridge while you make the filling.

3. Cream butter and sugar together then add beaten egg.

4. Add all dry ingredients (coconut, sultanas and cherries) and mix well.

5. Spread the mix over the set chocolate and bake for 20-25 minutes at 350F, 180C or Gas 4.

6. Once it no longer wobbles and the top is browned slightly, leave to cool completely before cutting into squares (as big or as small as you like - see notes below).

Notes - 
1 - These are dangerously addictive. I try to get the balance of square size right and contemplate the following: 
      a. cut big squares and you get a satisfying sized portion.
      b. cut smaller squares or rectangles and you can sneak one out of your cake tin without it being noticed.
      c. If they are cut small, you can possibly sneak a second and still no one would be none the wiser!!!
2 - These keep quite well for a week or so, but any longer and they can start to dry out a little.

Fruit and nut bars

I had recently been to a mind body soul fair and sampled some raw food bars. Not so delicious sounding, but actually not bad. I had also been having a bit of a healthy diet kick and the bars I bought werent bad but were not exactly cheap. However, on looking at the ingredients I thought..hmm these dont look too tricky.

So I googled a few recipes and came up with something that looked like it might taste a bit similar to the ones I had recently purchased. They were being touted as brownies and whilst I wouldnt go that far they do give a good chocolate hit.  I made a few tweaks and this is what I came up with, Imust admit I am now a bit hooked!

150g walnuts
250g stoned dates
5tbsp cocoa powder
4 tbsp dessicated coconut
1-2 tbsp runny honey

1. Blitz nuts in a food processor (use a blender at your peril - see notes at end)

2. Add dates and blitz

3. Add cocoa powder and coconut and then honey.

4. Tip into a bowl and squidge together to ensure a fully mixed dough

5. Line a 7" square tin with greaseproof paper and then push the dough out to the corners attempting to achieve a relatively even surface.

6. Chill in the fridge for an hour then take out of tin and cut into bars.

Notes - The recipie was originally from the Food.com website 
1 - Blenders may handle the nuts but may not like the consistency of the dates. Mine didnt and told me so with the smell of burning electrics.
2 - Dont just put a square of greaseproof paper in the bottom of the tin. Make sure some of the paper is overlaping and sticking out at least one side so that you can pull your chilled mix out of the tin. Otherwise, you may be digging knives in the sides and under to free it, it will make a mess and you will have squish it back in the tin again.
3 - I have since googled some more recipes and these dont look bad and have some good suggestions for combinations at the bottom of the page.

Rocky Road

This is the best recipe I have found for rocky road. The original recipe was quite Christmassy with amaretti biscuits but you can add whatever combination you like for the rocky part of the Rocky Road.

Providing you have the essentials such as some kind of biscuit that can be crushed and broken you could probably put anything in: nuts, cherries, popcorn (I saw Jamie Oliver do this on TV).

In the picture below, I replaced the amaretti with digestives as that is what I had in the cupboard. I have tried it with amaretti  biscuits and it is rather scrummy!

Basic Mix
250g/9oz dark chocolate, chopped
150g/5oz milk chocolate, chopped (you can change the ratio of dark and milk chocolate depending on your taste)
175g/6oz butter, softened, plus extra for greasing
4 tbsp golden syrup

The Rocky Bits!
200g/7oz amaretti biscuits
150g/5oz shelled Brazil nuts
150g/5oz red glacé cherries
125g/4oz mini marshmallows

1. Place the dark and milk chocolate pieces into a heavy-based pan. Add the butter and golden syrup and cook over a low heat to melt and combine

2. Place the amaretti biscuits into a freezer bag and bash with a rolling pin to make crumbs of various sizes.

3. Place the Brazil nuts into another freezer bag and bash in the same way.

4. Take the pan of melted chocolate mixture off the heat and add the crushed biscuits and nuts.

5. Add the glacé cherries and mini marshmallows. Fold the mixture carefully to coat all of the solid ingredients with the syrupy chocolate mixture.

6. Pour the mixture into a 25cm/10in x 30cm/12in greased and lined baking tray and smooth the surface as much as possible (although it will look bumpy).

7. Refrigerate for two hours, or until firm enough to cut.

Notes:
1. Dont be tempted to add the marshmallows to the mix first, add them last so the mix has cooled a bit or they will melt into a big sticky goo. 
2. I had less digestives that I thought when I made this and actually had to add a pack of Oreos. Didn't quite have the desired effect as they didnt crumble as much and soak up the moisture so dont give a 'crunch' - worth experimenting though.
3. Original recipe from Nigella Lawson