Chocolate Chip Cookies

Many years ago I saw this recipe on ‘This Morning’ (ITV {British} daytime TV show) for a 4th of July programme. I was sooooooooooooooooooooooooo impressed that the cookies were made without eggs as I always thought they contained eggs !!!!!!! So that was one recipe I was going to try 🙂 Then a couple of years later when I tried to find the recipe it was not there. I searched for a few months on the net but no luck 😦 until my dear husband worked his magic and helped me to find this recipe in minutes!

Since then I have made them several times and everyone who has tried them loves them. I have added my own touches by making them in various different flavours and reducing the sugar and butter slightly, however the base recipe is the same as what Phil Vickery (British TV celebrity chef) did. These cookies are an ideal thing to make with children, my son enjoys making them and coming up with new combinations, it is fun to eat the cookie dough as well 😉

They make a good gift too as my son gave these to his teachers whilst he was in Montessori. I usually freeze a batch of dough so that they can be a quick treat as they can baked straight from frozen! I have also given them to family and friends, sometimes as baked cookies and sometimes as frozen dough. My husband’s nieces have made them with their friends at university, and they told me if you cut the pieces very chunky (about 3 cms thick)  then, when baked, it is very soft on the inside and slightly crunchy on the outside. Usually they tend to get a little hard the following day and don’t quite taste the same as what they do straight out of the oven, so try warming them up in the microwave for a few seconds. They are good to have with ice cream as well.

I find that this recipe is very versatile and hence makes it easy to adjust the recipe to your taste – so experiment and enjoy it guilt free as a treat 😀

As I have mentioned, go wild with the flavours as the combinations are endless. This dough keeps well in the freezer for a few months and makes an instant treat and is OK in the fridge for a couple of days. I have made it with orange peel and zest and chocolate, desiccated coconut, peanut butter, white chocolate chips, double chocolate and mint. You can add any of the dried fruits with the chocolate chips, and add cocoa powder to make double chocolate chip cookies. 

Ingredients

Preparation time: 30 mins        Cooking time: 15 mins        Makes roughly 30 big cookies

200 g butter softened

200 g brown sugar or caster sugar

170 g condensed milk

350 g self raising flour (sifted)

100 g chocolate chips or roughly chopped dark chocolate

For Mint Double Chocolate Chip

To the above basic recipe add :-

2 tbsp of Cocoa powder

1/2 cup fresh mint leaves

Blend half the sugar with fresh mint leaves, this ensures that the oils are released and the flavour enhanced. Proceed as the stages below and enjoy warm. 

Method

1) In a large bowl, cream together the butter and sugar until pale, stir in the condensed milk. Mix the flour and then work in the chocolate and any other ingredients you are using. Divide the dough in half if you want big cookies if not split the dough into 1/3. Roll into long cylinders about 5cm diameter and wrap in cling film or foil, chill for at least 30 mins in the fridge.

2) Pre heat the oven to 180 ‘C (350 ‘F / gas mark 4), and when ready peel off the cling film and cut into thick slices about 1 to 2 cms, place on baking parchment paper making sure to leave at least 3 cms gap and bake for 15 mins, or until the edges are golden brown but still a little soft. Bake in batches as many as you want to serve save the rest for another time.

Chocolate Chip Cookies

Recently we had the Mint Double Chocolate chip cookies with Chocolate mousse and strawberries and cream, it made for a very rich dessert. We were trying to create a giant flower cookie hence the pictures shows the pieces merging together…