Cookies Galore

I recently made the mistake of providing cake for my better half to take to work with him and now a weekly cake run is required. Ideal for testing out new recipes, this weeks donation was highly requested... Chocolate Chip Cookies. That staple love of everyone, big or small.  I decided to try three different variations and see how they went...

Chocolate Chip

Oh-so simple and utterly delicious, the chocolate chip cookie is a lunch box staple. This recipe take about 30 minutes start to finish and makes gorgeous cookies.I used milk and dark chocolate chips in this for added interest but you could easily use white chocolate or all of one type.

Ingredients
200g brown sugar
250g unsalted butter
2 eggs
3 tsp vanilla essence
1 tsp salt
450g self raising flour
200g milk chocolate chips
200g dark chocolate chips

Method
Preheat your oven to 200 fan. Cream together the butter and sugar until the mix is light and fluffy. Add the eggs and vanilla and beat again. Mix in the flour and salt to create a thick dough before folding in the chocolate chips.

Using your hands, create evenly sized balls of dough and press them out to around 1cm thick, placing on a greased baking sheet, Make sure to leave a couple of cm between each cookie to stop them sticking together, Bake for 10 -12 minutes until golden on top. Leave on the try to cool and harden then transfer to a wire rack to finish cooling when firm.


Double Chocolate Chip

More decadent than a simple chocolate chip cookie, the addition of a chocolaty dough makes  these something special as well as being easy to make.

Ingredients
200g brown sugar
250g unsalted butter
2 eggs
3 tsp vailla essence
1 tsp salt
350g self raising flour
150g cocoa powder
200g milk chocolate chips
200g dark chocolate chips

Method
preheat your oven to 200 fan, Mix together the butter and sugar until creamy then add the eggs and vanilla. Carefully add the cocoa powder, flour and salt to for a smooth dough, i found this one slightly less pliable than the chocolate chip cookies, Fold in the chocolate chips, using your hands to encourage them into the dough,

Form balls of the dough between your hands and press out to around 1cm thick. \Place the cookies on a greased baking sheet leaving approximately 2cm between each to prevent them bleeding into eachother. Bake for 10-12 minutes and leave to cool and firm up on the trays to prevent them breaking. Once firm, transfer to a wire rack to cool.

White Chocolate and Raspberry

A sophisticated take on a chocolate chip cookie, I like to pretend the addition of raspberries make these healthy and one of my five a day, if only!

Ingredients 
150g butter
150g caster sugar
2 eggs
250g self raising flour
100g white chocolate chips
150g raspberries

Method
Preheat the oven to 180 fan. Cream together the butter and sugar before adding the eggs, Slowly add the flour to create a dough. Chop the raspberries to similar sized pieced to the chocolate chips and fold both through the dough. this dough is much wetter than the others with the addition of the raspberries.

As with the other cookies, create balls of dough between your hands and gently flatten them to around 1cm thick, Place the cookies on a greased baking sheet and bake for around 15 minutes until golden brown. Leave to cool on the sheets until the cookies have firmed up and then transfer to a wire rack to finish cooling.

Perfect for special occasions or just to keep the biscuit tin topped up, cookies will always be a firm favourite, If you try any of the recipes please tag me using #diaryofadefectivehousewife, I can't wait to see your creations.