Category Archives: Biscuits

Triple chocolate cookies

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Triple chocolate cookies

When it comes to eating shop-bought snacks and baked goods, I can be very particular – if I’m going to splurge on calories and sugar it has to be worth it, and more often than not anything that comes in a packet isn’t.

At my work we have a fairly well stocked biscuit tin, but it’s very rare that I’ll have anything from it as I just don’t see biscuits as a worthwhile indulgence. I also think there’s something slightly disturbing about a biscuit that has a shelf life of months, if not years – I dread to think what’s in it that keeps it fresh!

The one type of biscuits I do like, although still buy very rarely, is cookies. As in the big, chewy, American-style ones, that come from the bakery section rather than the biscuit aisle , or, my absolute favourite, from Millies Cookies.

Even with those I’m still pretty fussy though – I like standard chocolate chip cookies, milk, white or dark, but definitely not anything fancy like toffee or rolos or smarties, and definitely not double or triple chocolate. Nope, plain flavour dough all the way, get those sinister looking dark cookies out of here right now, they’re not for me. No way.

Until now.

I made these on the request of the pony, who complained that I’d never made chocolate cookies with chocolate dough. As most of what I bake is eaten by him anyway, I thought it was a reasonable enough request, and after the success of the thick and chewy cookies I made a few weeks ago decided to use a recipe from Edd Kimber’s ‘The Boy Who Bakes’, adapting chocolate and cherry cookies to be chocolate and more chocolate cookies.

I was fully expecting to be pretty indifferent about these, but I was so wrong. I think, maybe, they are the best cookies I have made to date, beating every one of the plain flavour dough recipes I’ve tried.

These cookies are addictive – I initially halved the recipe to make 12 cookies, but had to mix up another batch just two days later when they’d all been eaten (I ate two, the pony ten…)

I honestly can’t recommend this recipe strongly enough – even if you think you wont like them, you will! Promise!

Triple chocolate cookies (adapted from The Boy Who Bakes)

Makes 12, but you’ll probably want to double, or triple, or quadruple it…

  • 100g dark chocolate, melted
  • 50g unsalted butter, at room temp
  • 50g caster sugar
  • 75g light brown sugar
  • 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
  • 1 medium egg
  • 65g plain flour
  • 25g cocoa powder
  • 1/2 tsp bicarbonate of soda
  • 1/2 tsp cinnamon
  • 1/2 tsp salt
  • 75g dark chocolate, chopped
  • 50g white chocolate, chopped

Beat the butter and both sugars together until light and fluffy – because it’s quite a high ratio of sugar to butter this will take a few minutes, but stick with it. Add the egg and vanilla and beat again. Sift together the flour, cocoa powder, bicarb, cinnamon and salt and fold into the mixture. Stir in the melted chocolate, then finally add in the chopped dark and white chocolate, folding until the chocolate is evenly distributed. Wrap the ball of dough in cling film and chill for at least an hour, to make the cookies easier to shape.

Divide the dough into 12 equal pieces (mine were about 40g each) and roll into balls. Place six of the balls spaced a couple inches apart on a lined baking sheet, then bake at 180 degrees for around 13 minutes, or until the dough has spread and cracked and is just starting to crisp around the edges. Leave to cool on the baking sheet for as long as you can, then dive in and enjoy.

Tibits chocolate and coconut macaroons (GF)

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chocolate and coconut macaroons

Before anyone says ‘they’re the worst looking macarons I’ve ever seen’ I should make it clear that these are definitely meant to be macaroons – the simple, coconutty treat; NOT macarons, the perfectly round, brightly coloured, dainty French delicacies.

I have to admit though, even going up against other macaroons these aren’t going to be winning any beauty prizes. What were supposed to be lovely little pointed mounds completely spread as soon as they went into the oven, and left me with the flat, cracked, sort-of-macaroons you see here.

The recipe for these comes from tibits at home, a new cookbook from the chefs at tibits, a vegetarian (and largely vegan) restaurant in London.

The lovely people at Tibits very kindly offered me the chance to visit the restaurant for a review, but as it’s in London and I’m in Cornwall it seemed a little far to venture for dinner, so I settled for a copy of the cookbook so I could try and knock up some restaurant-quality vegetarian delights at home (in theory…)

The book is split into seasons, which I think is a great approach and definitely helpful in choosing recipes that suit the time of year. Each season has a wide variety of recipes, from soups and salads to main meals and desserts, with some interesting hot and cold drinks thrown in as well.

Pretty much every recipe has a picture of the finished dish, which is a big plus for me – I like to at least have an idea of what I’m aiming for! The instructions are clear and simple to follow, and considering these are all restaurant dishes for the most part they don’t use any tricky techniques or fancy equipment, so they are definitely achievable for the home cook.

Tibits lasagne – mine wasn’t quite so pretty….

The two negatives I found were that some of the recipes don’t state how many portions it will make – in some cases common sense will give you an idea, but in others I could end up making a meal for two or a meal for 10 and I wouldn’t know which until it came out of the oven.

*EDIT – Tibits have kindly pointed out that it states in the intro that recipes serve 4 so this was my mistake!*

The other slight downside is that some of the recipes call for ingredients that aren’t too readily available if you live out in the sticks like I do. I can’t say I’ve seen sambal oelek, dried string beans or blanc battu in my local Tesco recently…

When it came to deciding which dishes to try, I know I should have gone to the Spring section, but it’s been so hideously cold recently that instead I chose two from Winter.

Firstly I made a spinach and feta lasagne (pic of their version above), which I was very impressed with – looking at the ingredients list it sounds like it could be a bit plain, but the flavours are all fresh and complement each other perfectly.

Obviously the second recipe had to be a cake or bake, and that leads me back to the chocolate and coconut macaroons.

Taste and texture wise they turned out exactly as I had hoped – sweet and chewy with bite from the coconut and a richness from the chocolate. I think it’s more likely to be baker error that lead to the slightly dodgy appearance than any fault with the recipe so I may have to try again and pipe them into shape to see if that helps.

Thanks again to Tibits for sending me the book to review – there are lots more recipes I’m looking forward to trying so it’s a very gratefully received gift, and I hope I get to visit the restaurant at some point in the future, to see how the recipes are done professionally.

Chocolate and coconut macaroons (slightly adapted from tibits at home)

  • 1 medium egg white
  • 80g caster sugar
  • 50g dark chocolate
  • 80g desiccated coconut
  • optional – 25g dark chocolate to drizzle

Melt the dark chocolate in a small bowl and set aside to cool. Whisk the egg white with an electric mixer, gradually adding the sugar as you go until the mixture is stiff and glossy. Fold in the coconut and melted chocolate, then either pipe onto a baking tray or spoon the mixture on into 12-15 small rounds. Bake at 150 degrees for 15-20 minutes, then leave to cool on the baking tray. Melt the remaining chocolate and spoon into a small piping bag, then drizzle over the top of the macaroons and leave to set.

The Boy Who Bakes chocolate chip cookies

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Boy Who Bakes chocolate chip cookies

One of the books I was gifted this Christmas was ‘The Boy Who Bakes‘, the first title by Great British Bake Off winner Edd Kimber.

The book has a good mix of cakes, cookies, tarts and other treats, with what I think is quite an American feel to it, but choosing what to make first wasn’t a difficult decision – it had to be the ‘thick and chewy’ chocolate chip cookies, as I am forever searching for the perfect recipe to produce bakery-style, puffy, chewy, chocolatey cookies.

Edd’s recipe is definitely one of the best I’ve tried, the only negative being that the were ever so slightly greasy looking when they came out of the oven, possibly as the dough has a higher proportion of butter than some of the others I’ve tried.

I actually scaled down the amount of chocolate from the original recipe and in my opinion they were still plenty chocolatey enough, but I think Edd’s recipe is from the New York Times cookie school of thought where the dough should be merely enough to hold together the chunks of chocolate, rather than the star of the show.

I also added in a teaspoonful of ground ginger, which I think really lifted the flavour – it wasn’t enough to turn it into a ginger flavoured cookie, but it definitely made a difference.

Although these were close to perfect cookies (and the pony even asked for me to make them again, which doesn’t happen often) the white chocolate and cranberry cookies I made from a Table for Two recipe is still the best dough I’ve tried so far – there could be better out there though, so the search continues!

The Boy Who Bakes chocolate chip cookies

Makes around 24

  • 110g light brown sugar
  • 110g caster sugar
  • 110g unsalted butter
  • 1 medium egg
  • 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
  • 250g plain flour
  • 1 tsp ground ginger
  • 1/2 tsp sea salt
  • 1/2 tsp baking powder
  • 1/2 tsp bicarbonate of soda
  • 200g good quality dark chocolate, chopped

Stir the two sugars together in a large bowl, then add the butter and beat to combine (you don’t need to get it as light and fluffy as if you were baking a sponge, it just needs to come together). Add the egg and vanilla and beat again, then sift in the flour, ginger, salt and baking powder and stir into the mix. Finally add the chopped chocolate, fold in, and then wrap the ball of dough in cling film and chill in the fridge for at least a couple of hours.

When you’re ready to bake the cookies, divide the dough into equal sized balls – if I remember rightly mine were around 30g each, half the size recommended in the recipe but I think you would have to be especially gluttonous to want a cookie that big! Place fairly well spaced out on a baking sheet, and bake at 180 degrees for about 15 minutes, or until golden and just starting to crisp around the edges. Leave to cool on the baking sheet for a few minutes, then transfer to a wire rack. Delicious fresh from the oven, but also still good after a couple of days.

Cranberry and white chocolate cookies

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Cranberry white chocolate cookies

Cranberry and white chocolate is a classic combination, with the slight bitterness of the cranberries being the perfect foil for the sweetness of the white chocolate, and putting them together in a cookie is something I’ve been meaning to do for a long time.

I’m also constantly in search of the perfect chewy cookie recipe, and although I have another REALLY good one to post soon, I think the dough for these is possibly the best I’ve made so far.

The cookies turned out just how I like – soft, chewy, puffy and with just the right amount of bite. I think I was a bit stingy on the chocolate and cranberries though, I used what I had in the cupboard but if I made them again I think I would up the quantities of both, by half again.

The recipe for these comes from Table for Two, and if my recommendation isn’t enough to make you want to bake them, TfT’s pictures will, I can promise you! They look so tempting that I made them within a month of bookmarking the recipe, which pretty much never happens…

Cranberry and white chocolate cookies (adapted from Table for Two)

Makes 24

  • 60g butter
  • 100g caster sugar
  • 100g light brown sugar
  • 1 medium egg
  • 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
  • 1 tbsp milk
  • 180g plain flour
  • 1tsp bicarbonate of soda
  • 1/2 tsp salt
  • 100g white chocolate, chopped
  • 60g dried cranberries

Beat the butter to soften then add both sugars and cream until light and fluffy. Add the egg, vanilla and milk and beat again until fully combined, then sift in the flour, bicarb and salt and fold to combine. Stir in the chocolate and cranberries and then chill the mixture in the fridge for at least half an hour.

Roll the chilled dough into 24 balls – I weighed mine to make sure they’re all the same but that’s probably not necessary! Place spaced out on a baking sheet (I had to do this in 4 batches of 6) and bake in a preheated oven at 180 degrees for about 12 minutes – keep an eye on them though, you want to take them out when they are golden but still soft in the middle.

Leave to cool on the baking sheet for 5 minutes, then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely. They do taste incredible warm though, so don’t feel obliged to wait!

As this was one of the rare occasions I actually make something I have bookmarked rather than just adding it to my huge to-bake like, I’m entering these cookies to Bookmarked Recipes, hosted by Jac at Tinned Tomatoes. Hopefully I’ll get through a few more of my list this month as well!

bookmarked recipes new logo

Chocolate chip peanut butter oatmeal cookies

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With all the things I’ve baked recently that haven’t worked out as well as I would have liked, these cookies really stood out as being every bit as good as the recipe promised!

I’m on a bit of a peanut butter kick at the minute, and cookies are one of my favourite indulgences (there really isn’t any way of making them healthy!) so when I saw these on Mel’s Kitchen Cafe I knew I would have to give them a try.

The first batch I overcooked a little as I didn’t allow for that extra bit of cooking they do on the baking tray once you’ve taken the tray out of the oven, but luckily even halving the quantity of dough as I did it makes 20 cookies so I had plenty more opportunities to get it right.

Properly baked, they end up deliciously chewy with a nice bite from the oats, and the peanut butter and chocolate works perfectly.

I strongly suggest that if you like peanut butter and you like cookies, you should make these – dead simple to throw together and keep well either in the fridge or freezer so you can bake up a few whenever cookie cravings hit!

Chocolate chip peanut butter oatmeal cookies (recipe adapted from Mel’s Kitchen Cafe)

  • 115g butter
  • 135g peanut butter
  • 100g light brown sugar
  • 100g caster sugar
  • 1 egg
  • 120g plain flour
  • 50g oats
  • 1 tsp baking powder
  • 150g dark chocolate chips

Cream together the butter, peanut butter and both sugars until light and fluffy. Add the egg and beat until well mixed. Sift the flour and baking powder into the bowl, then add the oats and chocolate chips and fold in, until there are no more white flour spots.

Roll into 20 equally sized balls (I weighed them at 40g each but you don’t have to be that obsessive!) and place spaced out on a baking tray. Bake at 180 degrees, for about 10 minutes, or until just starting to brown around the edges and but still soft in the middle. Leave to cool on the baking tray for 5-10 minutes, then transfer to a wire rack and/or your mouth.

Flourless peanut butter white chocolate chip cookies (GF)

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I’ve seen several variations of this peanut butter cookie on different blogs, and although curious I never got around to trying it, until last weekend.

The cookie recipe is basically just peanut butter, sugar and eggs – how it holds up with no flour is an absolute mystery to me, but it really does work!

As well as being tasty and having the perfect level of chewiness, they were by far the easiest cookie I’ve made – add to that the fact they’re naturally gluten free and you’re on to a definite winner!

You could try loads of add-ins and different variations to the basic batter, as I had a bar of white chocolate I used that, but I think dark chocolate could be even better.

You can have a plate of these in front of you in under 20 minutes – so what are you waiting for, go make some!

Flourless peanut butter white chocolate chip cookies (recipe from Joy the Baker)

Makes 16 cookies

  • 250g peanut butter (crunchy or smooth, but I went for crunchy)
  • 100g caster sugar
  • 100g light brown sugar
  • 1 egg
  • 1tsp baking powder
  • 50g white chocolate

Beat the peanut butter and both sugars together for a couple of minutes until well combined, then add in the egg and baking powder and beat again. Divide into 16 equally sized small balls and flatten onto a baking sheet, spaced a couple of inches apart from each other. Chop the chocolate into small pieces and press into the cookies, then bake at 180 degrees for 8-12 minutes – keep a close eye on them because overcooked is not a good thing when it comes to cookies! Leave to cool on the tray for 5 minutes, then transfer to a wire rack. Or, as Joy suggests, your mouth.

 

Minstrel cookies

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My love of a bargain beat sense and reason once again the other week, when I saw share-size bags of minstrels reduced to just 25p each – what a bargain! Naturally I grabbed a handful.

I could quite happily have just munched my way through them all, but I thought it would be more sensible to use some of them for baking, and having seen lots of cookie recipes that use M&Ms, I thought Minstrels would probably bake into a biscuit equally well.

I decided to tie this in to April’s We Should Cocoa Challenge, set by Choclette of Chocolate Log Blog, which was to combine chocolate and cheese, and used the base recipe for these chocolate chip cookies, which uses cream cheese instead of an egg in the cookie dough.

They turned out really well – more like a normal cookie than the apricot and white chocolate cream cheese cookies I made last year – and stayed really soft and chewy for as long as I could keep the pony’s hands off them.

I would definitely use this recipe again if I have any spare cream cheese waiting to be used!

Minstrel Cookies (recipe adapted from the Busty Baker)

Makes 14

  • 85g cream cheese
  • 85g butter, melted and cooled
  • 1tsp vanilla extract
  • 105g light brown sugar
  • 135g plain flour
  • 1/2 tsp bicarbonate of soda
  • 1/2 tsp salt
  • 150g Minstrels (approximately 1.5 large bags, or 3 regular sized bags)

Beat the cream cheese to soften, then gradually add in the melted butter and vanilla, beating until combined, followed by the sugar (sifted is best to get out any lumps). Sift together the flour, bicarb and salt and fold into the cookie mixture. Divide into 14 roughly equal pieces, then press 4 Minstrels into each. You don’t have to be that precise, you could just mix them into the mixture beforehand but I like all my cookies to have equal amounts of chocolate!

Chill in the fridge for half an hour, then roll each cookie into a ball. Place the balls onto a baking sheet, well spaced out – I did mine in 2 batches. Flatten down a little, then bake at 160 degrees for 15 minutes, or until just starting to turn golden. Leave on the baking sheet for 10 minutes, then transfer to a wire rack to cool.

Homepride chocolate chip cookies – a Random Recipe

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This month’s random recipe challenge, set by Dom of Belleau Kitchen, was to pick a random recipe from the 17th book in your collection.

For me, this was ‘Baking with Homepride Flour’, my oldest cookbook.

Now, I have a confession to make – the selection of these chocolate chip cookies wasn’t completely by chance.

Not because I cheated at all, but because I have made the recipe so many times I think the book automatically falls open at that page…

As much as I love chewy, American-style chocolate chip cookies, these will always hold a special place in my heart as I’ve been making them for as long as I’ve been baking.

They’re almost shortbread like in texture, quite crumbly and soft, studded with delicious chunks of chocolate (I double the amount stated in the recipe – it’s better that way, trust me!

I probably wouldn’t have thought about making these old favourites if it hadn’t been for Random Recipes, so thank you Dom!

Homepride chocolate chip cookies (from Baking with Homepride Flour)

Makes 20 cookies

  • 50g butter
  • 125g caster sugar
  • 1 egg
  • 1tsp vanilla extract
  • 125g plain flour
  • 75g self raising flour
  • 100g chopped milk chocolate
  • 100g chopped white chocolate

Cream together the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in the egg and vanilla, then sift in the two flours and fold in with the chopped chocolate. Roll the mixture out into two long sausage shapes, about an inch thick, and wrap in cling film. Chill until ready to use (they freeze well if you don’t want to make them all at once.)

Heat the oven to 220 degrees. Slice each sausage of dough into 10 pieces, then flatten them out on a lined baking tray. Bake for 8-10 minutes, or until just starting to turn golden. Leave on the tray for a couple of minutes, then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.

Peanut butter Nutella swirl cookies (GF)

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Pinterest is dangerous.

Ever since I joined, I’ve been overwhelmed by the amount of delicious looking baked goods that appear every time I log in.

Sometimes I pin or repin things and then forget about them, but some I just can’t get out of my head.

These peanut butter Nutella swirl cookies were one of the latter – as soon as I saw them I knew they would be baked soon, and they were.

As well as being pretty tasty, they’re also versatile – I made half the batch using wheat and gluten free flour and you couldn’t tell the difference between those and the ones made with normal flour, perfect if you know anyone with allergies or intolerances that normally would have to miss out.

(PS – If you too are a Pinterest love, you can follow me at www.pinterest.com/natblachford)

Peanut butter Nutella swirl cookies (recipe pinned from Une Gamine Dans La Cuisine)

Makes 35 cookies

  • 125g butter
  • 50g caster sugar
  • 55g light brown sugar
  • 200g peanut butter
  • 1 egg
  • 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
  • 210g plain flour (GF or normal)
  • 3/4 tsp bicarbonate of soda
  • 1/4 tsp salt
  • 100g Nutella
Beat together the butter, both sugars and peanut butter until light and creamy. Add the egg and vanilla and beat again, until well combined. Sift in the flour, bicarbonate of soda and salt, and fold in until the mixture is just coming together, then gently fold in the nutella (the more you mix it, the less pronounced the swirls will be.)
Use a tablespoon measure to scoop rounded balls out of the mixture, and place spaced out on a baking sheet. Flatten each down with a fork, to create a criss-cross pattern on top. Bake at 180 degrees for about 9 minutes, or until just turning golden. Leave to cook on the sheet for a couple of minutes, then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.

Chocolate sandwich hearts

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I’m by no means an expert when it comes to relationships (something people who know me well will be quick to testify!) but one thing I do know, with some certainty, is that the way to any boy’s heart is food.

In the case of the friendly pony, if the food involves some sort of chocolate, then it’s pretty much the equivalent of Cupid’s arrow – which is why for Valentine’s Day there will be no cards, no gifts – just lots of chocolate-based treats.

First up are these chocolate sandwich hearts, which I’m entering for the February Tea Time Treats challenge, this month hosted by Kate of  What Kate Baked (the theme of course being romance).

The biscuits are  thin, crisp and quite strongly flavoured of cocoa with just a hint of cinnamon. The fudge filling is my new favourite obsession – a rich, chocolatey fudge sauce that can be whipped up in 5 minutes with ingredients I always have on hand – slightly dangerous for my waistline but delicious nonetheless!

Together, they create a perfect bite-sized chocolatey tea time treat. And if the thought of Valentine’s romance makes you feel a little queasy, just use a round cookie cutter instead!

Chocolate sandwich hearts (biscuits from 1001 Cupcakes, Cookies and Other Tempting Treats, filling adapted from Espresso and Cream)

(Makes 10-ish sandwich biscuits)

For the biscuits:

  • 125g butter
  • 75g icing sugar
  • 115g plain flour
  • 40g cocoa powder
  • 1/2 tsp cinnamon
Cream together the butter and sugar until light and fluffy, then sift in the rest of the ingredients, mixing to combine. Bring the mixture together into a dough, then chill for 20 minutes in the fridge. Dust two sheets of baking paper with cocoa powder, then roll out the dough inbetween the sheets, to about 3mm thick.
Use a heart (or any shape!) cutter and place the biscuits on a baking sheet, with about an inch space between them. Bake at 160 degrees for about 15 minutes, or until firm. Leave on the baking tray to cool for a couple of minutes, then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.

For the filling:

  • 1/4 cup butter
  • 1/4 cup milk
  • 1/4 cup cocoa powder
  • 1/2 cup dark brown sugar

Heat the butter and milk in a saucepan, stirring until the butter has melted, then bring to the boil and simmer for a minute or two. Quickly stir in the cocoa powder and sugar, and whisk until the sauce is thick and glossy. Transfer to a bowl and leave to cool.

Once the biscuits and filling are cool, spread some of the filling onto half of the biscuits, then sandwich with another biscuit on top. Give to your Valentine, or just eat them all yourself!