Double Chocolate Chip Cookies

Baking cookies makes your house smell gorgeous! This is a really simple recipe that is great to do with the kids, or you can use it to make ‘cookies in a jar’ gifts for birthdays or other special occasions.

Ingredients:

(makes approximately 15 cookies)

• 200g light brown sugar
• 125g butter
• 1 egg
• 1/2 tsp vanilla essence
• 175g self raising four
• 75g drinking chocolate powder
• 100g chocolate chips or chunks (or you can chop up a 100g chocolate bar)

Method

1. Heat the oven to 200C (180C for fan assisted)
2. Cream the butter and sugar together in a bowl
3. Add the egg and vanilla essence
4. Add the flour and chocolate chips or chopped up chocolate
5. Mix thoroughly so all the ingredients are incorporated
6. Roll into small balls, and then flatten
7. Place onto a baking tray lined with greaseproof paper, keeping lots of space between them
8. Cook in the oven for 8-10 minutes
9. Enjoy!

Cookies in a Jar

Alternatively you can use the same recipe to create ‘Cookies in a Jar’ gifts for loved ones.

The jar in the picture below is a 1 litre jar, and I used double the quantities of the ingredients above.  Obviously you can use a smaller jar, and scale down the quantities but you want to aim to fill the jar to the top so the layers don’t mix up.

1. Weigh out the brown sugar, flour, chocolate powder and chocolate chips or chunks.
2. Use a clean jar and carefully fill the jar with the dry ingredients, packing each layer down as you go.  I used a jam funnel to fill the jar, and used a small plastic rolling pin with a flat end to pack down the layers before adding the next one.
3. The last layer should be the chocolate chips.
4. Seal the jar, and decorate it as you want to.
5. I used a ribbon bow, and labelled using a chalkboard tag, but you could also use a cardboard parcel tag.
6. The instructions on the tag should be:
   • Empty jar contents in a bowl
   • Add egg, butter and vanilla essence (quantities depend on your jar size- see above)
   • Mix thoroughly and divide into small balls, flatten and cook for 7-9 minutes at 180C

Makes a lovely personal birthday or Christmas gift, and don’t forget Valentine’s day and Mother’s day are coming soon!