Recipe Time: Chocolate Fix Cookies

A teaser or a pleaser? That’s the eighty thousand dollar question. As with many of you, I’ve always had this issue with food. Unfortunately, being a foodaholic means being extremely fussy about what you eat on a day to day basis. So the dish must be both.

The other day, Rob and I were walking through the city laneways discussing how his wife, Sandra, could easily eat canned tuna with toast for dinner five nights a week, whereas he was the complete opposite- happily cooking for the both of them everyday to avoid this catastrophe. Sandra boldly stated that she just didn’t love food, emphasising that unless you love food, canned foods for dinner would suffice, therefore, cooking is out of the question. Gobsmacked, my jaw dropped onto the slimy laneway concrete, whilst I stood there staring at Rob.

However, this moment of shock was short lived. Sensing the whiff of smokey meat hitting the grill, our full attention was required as we hunted down the prey like a pack of wolves.

I guess that’s be best part of being how I am, because the smell of freshly baked scones or sizzling onions can cure any bad moods!

Now back to the cooking. Last night, my friends and I had plans to go out for dinner. However, the weather was definitely not in our favour as we watched the rain endlessly pour down. Not having enough ingredients to make a main meal, I decided to make us some cookies instead using my mama’s recipe. These babies are insanely popular, especially around the my mum’s neighborhood and with friends who would make any excuse to come over my place knowing that fact I have a jar always abundant with cookies.

Makes 24 sinful cookies

Zee Ingredients

135 gms butter at room temperature

1 and 3/4 cups Self raising flour

2 large eggs

1/2 cup of good quality choc chips

1/2 cup caster

1 teaspoon of Vanilla essence

A pinch of salt

The Procedure

1. Preheat oven to 180 degrees and lay baking paper on a flat tray. No need for any greasing.
2. In a large bowl, add the softened butter, caster sugar, eggs and vanilla essence. Beat it…beat it until smooth. Sorry got Michael Jackson in my head.
3. Sift flour through. If you don’t have a sieve, you can just fluff it up with a fork or transfer the flour into an airtight container and shake like mad. Add the salt. Then, using your hands or a wooden spoon, stir like crazy. The mixture will be tough so use those muscles.
4. Stir and fold in the chocolate chips with your hands until it is evenly spread throughout.  I use Nestle or for those special occasions, I use Koko Black.
5. Using a table spoon as measurement, fill the spoon with the dough then gently flattening it once it hits the tray with each one being about 1 – 2 inches apart to ensure separation. Try to keep each cookie the same size as they will bake more evenly. We don’t want burnt or underdone cookies.
6. Bake for 10 minutes or until golden brown. The center will be soft but will continue to cook through when left on the tray. Let them cool down and remove with a spatula. Although tempting, if you remove them too early the melted chocolate may cause some breakage.

TIP: As the rear of the oven cooks faster, rotate the cookie tray half way through baking

The result should be a light, thin and crisp cookie that isn’t overly sweet answering your buttery coos leaving you with a subtle salty aftertaste. In my books,  if you can’t have more than 3 in a row, it’s too sweet.

How do I serve them?

When I have guests over, I would break the cookies apart into thumbnail sized chunks and serve over vanilla icecream sending my friends into a sweet frenzy. Who’s in Food Rehab now?

You’ve been served

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