“Baking cookies is comforting, and cookies are the sweetest little bit of comfort food. They are very bite-sized and personal.” ~ Sandra Lee
If a bad day or week has left you feeling a little fragile it can be helpful to do something that’s simple and distracting but still makes you feel as though you’ve achieved something. It’s why I’ve been doing a lot of baking recently – and why this blog may end up being a bit more random over the next few weeks than regular readers might have been used to – there are lots of really straight forward things that you can bake and still end up with a whole bunch of something really tasty to show for it.
I can’t think of anything more straight forward to bake than chocolate chip cookies and, with a nod to its being Valentine’s day tomorrow, homemade cookies can also make a really sweet gift.
So here’s how to make a batch of cookies.
Ingredients:
- 150g/5oz butter
- 80g/3oz muscovado sugar
- 80g/3oz white granulated sugar
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- 1 egg
- 225g/8oz plain flour
- 1/2 a teaspoon of baking powder
- a pinch of salt
- 200g/7oz chocolate chips
Method:
Step 1. Soften the butter then beat it together in a bowl with the sugars in to a nice creamy consistency.
Step 2. Beat in the vanilla extract and the egg.
Step 3. Next stir in the flour – I tend to think pretty much everything tastes better if you sieve the flour first – followed by the chocolate chips.
Step 4. Use a teaspoon to make small mounds of the mixture across a baking tray(s). Make sure to leave plenty of space between them as the cookies will expand in the oven.
Step 5. Bake in an oven pre-heated to 170C/340F/Gas Mark 5, leave for 8-12 minutes depending on whether you like your cookies to have a soft centre or to be crispy right the way through.
Step 6. Remove the cookies from the oven and leave to cool for a few minutes before serving. If you’ve opted for soft centre cookies leave the them on the baking tray to firm up for a couple of minutes before moving them.
Make-Up & Mirtazapine 