Chocolate chip cookies

Cookies have run out in our house a few weeks ago. We have been avoiding buying in to avoid discarding packaging but none of us has felt like baking... We are now developing a withdrawal syndrome. We open the cookies cupboard, find nothing and get really annoyed and grumpy.

I bought a package of cocoa nibs (100% cocoa) last year and it's running out of it's expiry date next month so I decided to finally bake chocolate chip cookies, something I have not done before.

The cookies have a biscuit crunch. They are not soft like cookies, they have a delicious and audible crunch to them. Taste wise, they are very good. I thought they would be very sweet due to the amount of sugar in them but, in reality, the dark chocolate chips balance it quite well.

The mixture is a struggle but the end result is worth it.

Recipe from the Women's Weekly Easy cakes & biscuits.

Serves: 58 cookies (roughly 6cm diameter).

Ingredients:

• 250g butter, softened
• ½ tsp vanilla paste
• 165g caster sugar
• 165g demerara sugar
• 1 egg
• 335g plain flour
• 1 tsp bicarbonate of soda
• 375g dark brown chocolate melts (I used 125g of chocolate nibs which are 100% cocoa and 250g of dark chocolate chips which are 70% cocoa)

Method:

1. Beat butter, vanilla paste, sugars and egg with an electric mixer until light and fluffy. You'll get a stiff mixture.
   
   
   
2. Stir in the sieved flour and bicarbonate of soda. I used a wooden spoon to stir the flour into the mixture to avoid flour flying everywhere. I finished with a bit of the electric mixer just to make sure it was well mixed.
   
   
   
   
   
   
3. Stir in the chocolate. Very stiff mixture, plenty of elbow work! I was not expecting the mixture to be so sticky!
   
   
   
   
   
   
4. Roll tablespoons of mixture into balls, place them about 5cm apart on baking paper lined trays. It didn't say whether to use hands or not but I thought the mixture was so sticky that I decided to use a spoon and knife. Scoop with the spoon and roughly shape it with the knife before placing it on the tray.
   
   
   
5. Bake for 15min on a 180°C oven.
   
   
   
6. Cool on the tray for 5 min and then transfer to a wire rack.
7. Store in a airtight container for up to 1 week.