Thank You Cookies

My family have lived in Singapore for the past three years but are sadly in the throes of packing up to return to rainy old England. I've had some amazing holidays in South East Asia and taken cookery lessons in many different countries during my gap year, but more on those in later posts. This summer I spent a month and a half over there, visiting Indonesia and Hong Kong for a few weeks, as well as getting a bit too click happy with internet shopping in the process! Back in Manchester the parcels were piling up for me and a friend who was flat-sitting told me the concierges were a bit grumpy about holding all of my parcels (it was like christmas had come early when I got back and saw them!), so as a thank you I decided to bake them some cookies.

One of these packages contained 2.5kg of Callebaut chocolate chips to stop me from searching the city for Green and Blacks every time I baked a batch of brownies (baking is an expensive habit!). They cost me about £13 from Amazon, and I think I have the 54% (or a number around that). They're delicious, and sadly for my waistline, if I'm not careful, just the right size to snack on. When I added them to my cookies (recipe below) and then baked them the chocolate remained viscous even once they'd cooled, which makes them a bit messy to eat but worth it! If you don't want the mess then add a different chocolate - I used to make them with Smarties or M&Ms, as the original recipe (where from I do not remember) told me to do. As a treat, or for a more upmarket cookie, I replace the regular chocolate with white chocolate and fresh raspberries. I've been making these cookies for years and they've always met with approval from friends and family.  They're easy to make, both by hand or, as I always do, with a stand mixer (cue my new KitchenAid!) or electric hand mixer.

I've tried in the past to make this recipe healthier with golden/brown sugar and brown flour but it just doesn't work. If you forget to use self-raising flour and use plain instead then it's fine, I've done it before and it doesn't appear to noticeably affect the quality. As there aren't any eggs in the recipe it is both safe and delicious to eat the dough without cooking it first. If you don't want to cook it all at once then you can wrap it in cling film and freeze or refrigerate it for a few days and just leave it on the work surface to return to room temperature before you separate it into cookie sized balls.

Cookie Recipe

Oven at 170˚C

Makes as many as you want, but I normally make 18, using 2 trays with 9 cookies on each (original recipe said 12)

Don't forget to grease the baking trays

Ingredients

100g butter (soft if possible, can be blitzed in the microwave for 10 seconds at a time to warm)

100g caster sugar (EDIT it's actually light muscovado in the original recipe and it as tastes really good but if you like a bit of a crunch in your cookies then keep the caster sugar. I promise you both work equally well)

1tbsp golden syrup

150g self-raising flour

85g-120g chocolate, depends on how much you like

Method

Beat together the butter and caster sugar until combined, soft and fluffy and light in colour

Then add the golden syrup and incorporate

Half the flour gets added and mixed in

Chocolate next

And finally the rest of the flour joins the mix

If using something to do the job for you then just put everything in the bowl at the same time and turn the mixer on

Once it looks like cookie dough and there aren't any left over bits at the bottom (if there are then add a smidgen more golden syrup) stop mixing and make as many balls of cookie dough as you want.

Don't flatten them!

Place your raw cookies onto the greased trays ensuring that they have space to spread

Pop into the oven for 8-10 minutes, then remove and leave them on the trays for 5 minutes or so until you can move them onto a cooling rack without them breaking apart (and if you do it too soon then what a shame, you'll just have to eat the broken ones!!!)

N.B. I'm not used to writing recipes so feel free to comment if you think it's too chatty or I'm missing information out etc.. Also, please let me know if the recipe works for you - I'd really love to hear your opinions.

What's your favourite cookie filling?