Every once and a while, I get an overwhelming urge to bake. The problem is, is that I usually don’t have enough sugar or eggs or milk or whatever it is I’ll need to bake what I want, but magically, last night, I did.
You see, I just wanted some damn cookies. Soft, homemade, warm. Not cold, store bought and crunchy. And so, I took to Google, and I found a deliciously simple recipe for chocolate chip cookies from one of my favourite chefs, Dan Lepard.
My favourite lemon poppy seed cupcakes are based on a recipe of his, and I’ve once again been inspired by one of his recipes and used it as a base for the cookies I made last night.
In my cupboard I had a packet of white chocolate chips. I also happened to have a packet of Italian Roast Starbucks VIA, and so I thought I’d experiment and see how coffee and white chocolate taste together in a biscuit.
We all know that mochas using white chocolate are delicious – and I’m happy to say, that they are in a cookie, as well. In fact, they are so good, they’re all I had for breakfast. And I’m going to guess they're what I’ll be having for lunch, too.
Fancy making these at home? Here’s my recipe, based on Dan Lepard’s “Baking with Passsion Chocolate Chip Cookies” recipe.
Ingredients
125g unsalted butter, softened
75g of light soft brown sugar
75g of caster sugar
1 large egg
150g plain flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp bicarbonate of soda
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
small pinch salt
150g white chocolate chips
Half packet of Starbucks VIA Italian Roast
Method
Heat the oven to 180°C/fan 160°C/350°F/gas 4.
Beat the butter, brown sugar, caster sugar and half packet of VIA until smooth and light. Then add the egg and the vanilla extract and beat again until smooth.
Sift the flour, baking powder, bicarbonate and salt into the bowl and stir until smooth. (If you have a mixer, this will go much faster and hurt your poor little arm less.)
Add the chocolate chips and stir again until they're evenly mixed through.
Dan Lepard suggests that you line a tray with non-stick baking paper, but I just put my dough straight on a non-stick cookie sheet.
Place your dough balls on the cookie sheet – I used just shy of a table spoon of dough for each ball – making sure you don’t have them too close together.
Bake for 10 – 12 minutes, or until just puffed and just starting to colour at the edges. (Don’t let the tops get too brown).
Leave to cool for a few minutes on the tray so that they set a little then with a spatula lift them onto a wire rack – if you have one. I just had a plate and they cooled fine.
Now, pour yourself a big glass of milk and enjoy your cookies!
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