The Roman Emperor has been a bit unsettled over the past week or so meaning that nights are somewhat restless and sleep is often hard to come by. I'm not quite sure if it's Roman teething, or simply doing his best newborn baby impression, but it's been rough. It's during tough times like these that I find myself counting my blessings as Mr L picks up the pieces as I carry on as best I can in my zombie-like state. He helps cook meals, he washes clothes, he walks and feeds the dog... he tells me my hair could do with a wash because it smells like apple puree... ;) He's an all-round domestic god!
I whipped him up a quick batch of these fabulous cookies while the emperor slept today as a little thank you for all his help recently. Mr L has a complete weakness for choc-chip cookies. He will be annoyed for me saying so, but it really is rather sweet watching a full-grown man enjoying cookies and milk in his pyjamas... hahaha.
This recipe comes from my cookbook of the month for April - The Sweet Life by 2012 MasterChef Australia winner, Kate Bracks. The more I read and cook, the more I am convinced that my cookbook collection is far closer to being complete thanks to this book.
Choc-Chunk Cookies (makes about 30)
Ingredients
125g (regular, i.e. salted) butter
110g (1/2 cup) caster sugar
110g (1/2 cup) brown sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 egg
260g (1 & 3/4 cups) self-raising flour
180g dark chocolate
Method
1. Preheat the oven to 175 degrees celcius. Grease 2 large baking trays and line with baking paper.
2. Combine the butter, both sugars and the vanilla in the bowl of an electric mixer and beat until pale. Add the egg and beat until well combined, scraping down the bowl as necessary. Sift the flour into the bowl and mix until just combined.
3. Cut the chocolate into 1 cm wide lengths diagonally across the block. It will naturally shatter a little. Then cut in the same way in the opposite direction. This way you get random-sized chunks of chocolate. Tip the whole lot in and mix through.
4. Gather the dough together and roll level tablespoons of mixture into balls. Place onto the prepared trays, leaving space between them for spreading.
5. Bake for 12-15 minutes until golden (12 minutes will make them slightly softer, 15 minutes will give you crispier cookies. Leave on the trays for 5 minutes, then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.
Without doubt, this is now my absolute go-to choc-chip (or choc-'chunk' in this case) cookie recipe... I previously posted, and raved about a Nigella Lawson recipe for perfect choc-chip cookies. They don't have a patch on these bad boys.. Sorry, Nigella, and thank you, Kate!
Til next time readers... Happy cooking, and (am hoping rather indulgently for myself), sweet dreams!
Ladybird xxx
I liked the way you cut out chocolate chunk pieces. I usually provide chocolate hampers
ReplyDeleteas return gift for my sons birthday party. But this time I'm thinking of providing cookie hampers. I'm collecting recipes for that and yours will be a good addition to my list.