Cookies

Last weekend I had another weekend of baking treats with the aim of raising money for Derby Kid's Camp. This time the baked treats were heading to the primary school that my Mum and Sister work at  (coincidentally it was also the primary school that I went to).  So, after a long day hiking through the Peak District on Saturday, I took advantage of the extra day of the bank holiday weekend to bake.

I was already due to bake something special for a guest blog spot I have been asked to do (more info on that soon) and thought, that alongside that baking I would also make some cookies to send into the staff room as an extra special treat!

Cookies are such a quick bake, and with one simple cookie dough you can make a variety of flavours.

I chose to make a batch of simple chocolate chip cookies along with some raspberry and white chocolate cookies. However, you can make any flavour you like with the dough used in this recipe. 

If you choose to make double chocolate cookies just remember to reduce the amount of flour you use and substitute for an equal amount of cocoa powder. If you just added cocoa on top of the flour your cookies could become quite dry and more biscuit like rather than having that chewy cookie consistnecy.

To make around 20 cookies you will need:

• 350g plain flour
• 300g sugar
• 250g unsalted butter
• 1 egg
• 1 teaspoon of baking power
• 1 teaspoon of bicarbonate of soda
• 1 teaspoon of vanilla
• 150g of chose filling

To make the cookie dough:

• Preheat your oven to 180c fan.
• Start by creaming the butter and sugar until light and fluffy, then add the egg and vanilla.
• Sift in the dry ingredients before adding your chosen fillings and mixing into a dough.
  
  
  
  
  If using fresh raspberries like I did, it does make your batter quite soggy and sticky. I did add a little extra flour just to make it easier to shape.

• Using your hand, spilt your dough into 20 roughly even sized balls. Place these on baking trays and bake for around 20 minutes. You need to make sure the balls of dough are very well spread out otherwise you will end up with one giant cookie!

This cookies will be quite large around 3inches in diameter, if you want smaller cookies, simply spilt your mixture into more parts.

When your cookies have baked allow the to cool a little on the baking trays before transferring them to a cooling rack. If you don't allow them to cool slightly the will still be quite fragile and soft, as they cool they will firm up but remain chewy in the middle!

And that's all there is too it. Such a simple bake with scope to be adapted any which way you fancy!

Happy baking - let me know how you get on!

Rach x