Triple Chocolate Chip Cookies

You see that nibbled cookie there in the back? Now let me tell you something about food stylists, most of them would carefully break off a piece of said cookie to look like someone had taken a bite out of it, they would then meticulously arrange the crumbs with tweezers to look like they accidentally tumbled from the cookie. Er, yeah... that's totally what I did... JOKES! 

Are you kidding me?! The best way to make a cookie LOOK like it's had a big bite taken out of it is to TAKE A BITE OUT OF IT. And also, I ate a ton of these cookies while shooting them. The batch didn't make 9, I just ate so many that there were only 9 left...

 Oh you want to know about the cookie? Of course you do! Because you want to eat way too many like I did. That's why you're here!

This recipe is my twist on Christina Tosi's childhood chocolate chip cookie. 

Christina Tosi, incase you don't know, is the sweet genius behind Momofuko Milk Bar in the US. I haven't met her, but I just know we would be baking besties. 

For me, the perfect chocolate chip cookie has firstly, more chocolate chips than cookie and secondly, is crispy on the outside but chewy in the middle. This is ALL of those things!  Chris (my baking bestie) uses milk powder in her recipe, I swapped mine for Horlicks (because I basically keep them in business with my addiction) and I revved up the chocolate chips. And I really mean revved, because I used three kinds; white, caramel and milk chocolate. Good things always come in three's, people. 

Also, imagine Astro's or Smarties in these? Or Chuckles?

Now, go forth and bake cookies!

Triple Chocolate Chip Cookies
Recipe inspired by Christina Tosi
Makes 24

225g butter, melted (still warm but not hot)
1 cup packed Natura Light Demerara Sugar
1 large egg
2 tsp vanilla extract
1 3/4 cups cake flour
2 tbsp Horlicks (malted milk drink) or milk powder
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp bicarbonate of soda
360g chopped chocolate or chocolate chips*

Preheat the oven to 190 degrees celcius. 
Mix together the butter and sugar for 1 minute or until well combined. 
Beat in the egg and vanilla for another minute. 
Mix in the flour, milk powder, salt, baking powder and bicarbonate of soda until just combined. Add the chocolate bits and mix again. 
Drop spoonfuls of cookie dough onto lined baking sheets ad bake the cookies for 10-12 minutes or until golden brown. Cool completely. 
I'm not going to even bother telling you how to store them because there won't be any left to store. 

*TIP: Chopped chocolate is much better than choc chips, in my opinion. We're looking for ooze here, and choc chips are way too stabilized. 

Chocolate Hazelnut Ginger Kisses

Known as 'Baci di dama' in Italy, or 'lady kisses' these gluten-free little cookies are perfectly appropriate (with a little ginger added of course) seeing as though today is International Kiss a Ginger Day. Instead of going around kissing random (ginger/red-headed) strangers, I think perhaps giving them a 'kiss' ie. a small cute cookie which can be popped whole into the mouth, is a little more... proper. I know this, because I've had some awkward smooches from people today! (Okay, I enjoyed it, just a little bit!)

Traditionally these baci are made with toasted hazelnuts, but toasted almonds would be equally delicious! As would sandwiching them together with melted white chocolate, although the dark bitter kind paired with the ginger is heavenly! If you're going all-out with the ginger, then double the spice. If you aren't a ginger fan then simply leave it out. It's such a versatile dough that you could add whichever flavourings you like - some orange zest, cocoa powder for a chocolate version or even a chai-spiced cookie would be delicious!

Happy baking - and don't forget to give a kiss to a ginger today!

Chocolate hazelnut ginger kisses or 'Baci di Dama'

Makes 40

140g hazelnuts (or almonds), toasted and skinned

140g (1 cup) rice flour or corn starch

1 tsp ground ginger

100g butter, softened

100g sugar

pinch of salt

100g good-quality dark chocolate, chopped and melted

Preheat the oven to 160C. Grease and line two baking sheets. Place the nuts in a food process and process until the consistency of coarse breadcrumbs. Add the flour, spice, butter, sugar and salt and pulse until the mixture comes together to form a soft dough.Divide the dough into three pieces and roll each into 2cm thick logs then refrigerate until firm. Working with one piece of dough at a time, cut off small pieces of dough (about 5g each) then roll into little balls and place on the baking sheet. Bake for 10 – 15 minutes or until golden brown. Cool completely. Sandwich together with melted chocolate and allow to set.

Gingerbread Train

Gingerbread houses are SO last year. They're out, and gingerbread trains are IN! 

Okay, so I made that up but that should totally be the case. Just look at all that spicy cuteness ready to go 'choo choo' straight into your mouth! 

And honestly, having made two gingerbread houses before (you can see them over HERE), this train is a breeze to make. Far easier than trying to get four walls and a roof to stand up straight!

How fabulous would this look as a centrepiece on your Christmas table?! 

And the best part is that guests can tuck into the train with their coffee afterwards. 

I mean!

Gingerbread train

Makes 1

Recipe adapted from Donna Hay’s Gingerbread Garland

125g butter, softened

90g Muscovado or brown sugar

230g golden syrup

375g cake flour

2 tsp (10ml) ground ginger

1 tsp (5ml) mixed spice

1 tsp (5ml) bicarbonate of soda

Royal icing

1 large egg white, beaten

2 cups icing sugar, sifted

squeeze of lemon juice

Preheat the oven to 180C. 

Cream the butter and sugar well until very pale and fluffy. 

Add the syrup, flour, spices and bicarb and mix until a smooth dough forms. 

Roll the dough out on a floured surface or between two sheets of baking paper until 4mm thick. Refrigerate for 30 minutes if too soft. 

Using train cookie cutters, cut out the shapes and place on a lined baking sheet. 

Bake in the preheated oven for 8-10 minutes or until golden and crisp. Allow to cool completely.

To make the royal icing, whisk the egg white gently then add the icing sugar until a stiff paste forms. Add the lemon juice and stir before placing in a piping bag. 

Sandwich the various components together with the royal icing and allow to dry. Then decorate the carriages using the rest of the icing and sweets, if desired. Allow to dry thoroughly before stringing the train carriages together with ribbon.

Store in an airtight container.

TIPS

• I used the Tescoma train cookie cutter set (visit their Facebook page here) but you could also use this print out HERE, cut out the shapes then trace around them on the dough using a knife. 
• You don't even have to use all the train cutters provided - simply cut out 4 of the main silhouette shapes and stack those together. You'll lose the 3D effect but it will look just as good!
• In order to get perfect shapes, refrigerate the dough once you've rolled it out so the shapes don't shift when you lift them onto a baking tray.

Great Aunty May's Romany Creams

A few months ago I was entrusted with one of our family heirlooms - a tatty, splattered, literally falling-apart cookbook that belonged to my Great Aunty May. It fits perfectly into my bookshelf where it sits snuggly next to my grandmother's equally worn cookbook (as well as my mothers!). Such a serendipitous reunion seeing as though both books were lovingly penned by sisters. 

My three most treasured possessions: Mom, Great Aunty May, and my Grandmother's cookbooks. 

These are the books I turn to when inspiration is low, when my passion for baking wanes or if I simply need a moment to be close to these three amazing women. Each recipe, whether handwritten, torn out of a magazine, passed on from a friend, or even jotted on the back of a shopping list, has a story and sometimes I wish I knew where the recipe came from and what made it special enough to be incorporated into the family repertoire. 

I found this recipe for copy cat Romany Creams jammed into the back of Aunty May's book - written on a piece of notepad paper which had clearly been folded and refolded too many times. As it's become extremely trendy recently to recreate homemade versions of childhood favourites, Great Aunty May was truly ahead of her time and it's not the first time I have invented a recipe only to discover that Aunt May or my grandmother thought of it first! 

This is a truly moreish cookie - simple to make and delicious with a cup of tea! Best of all, it reminds me of the biscuit tin my best friend and I used to keep in our treehouse for tea parties; filled with romany creams bought with pocket money we saved! Thanks for the great recipe Aunty May!

Romany Creams

Makes about 20

250g butter, softened

1 cup white sugar

2 ½ cups desiccated coconut

2 cups cake flour

50ml cocoa powder

1 tsp baking powder

pinch of salt

100g dark or milk chocolate, melted, to sandwich

Cream the butter and sugar until light and fluffy.

Add the coconut and sifted dry ingredients and mix to form a soft dough.

Roll tablespoonfuls of the mixture into 3cm sausages then place on a lined baking tray and flatten slightly with your fingers. Scratch the surface of the biscuits with a fork to create a rough texture.

Bake in a preheated oven at 180C for 10-12 minutes or until firm.

Allow to cool then sandwich two biscuits together using the chocolate. Allow to set then store in an airtight container for up to 2 weeks.

Double mocha chunk cookies

Want to know the best part about these cookies? Except for the fact that they are deliciously dark, decadent with just the right ratio of crunch vs. gooeyness? It's the fact that they're Fairtrade. 

It's Fairtrade week which means we should all be focusing on looking out for that little (but very important) black logo and popping that product in our trolleys. Chocolate and coffee are two of my favourite things in the world and I use them in stacks of recipes (see my caramel latte loaf recipe here or the uber delicious tiramisu eclairs recipe here) and they also happen to both be Fairtrade products. To find out more on what Fairtrade means you can check out their website: www.fairtradelabel.org.za but basically, it's all about looking after the farmers and the people that work so hard to harvest and grow those coffee and cocoa beans! And I like the sound of that. 

Something I also like is the idea that I can dig into a warm, melty batch of these cookies, and know that somehow, I'm contributing to making the world a better place. 

Now, go forth and bake up a batch so you can too!

Double mocha chunk cookies
Makes 20

1 cup cake flour

1/2 cup cocoa powder

½ tsp bicarbonate of soda

½ tsp salt

250g Fairtrade dark or milk chocolate, chopped

125g butter

1 tbsp Fairtrade ground coffee

1 1/2 cups sugar

2 eggs

1t vanilla extract

Sieve flour, cocoa, bicarbonate of soda and salt together. Melt half the chocolate with the butter and ground coffee in a saucepan over a low heat and allow to cool. Beat melted chocolate mixture, sugar, eggs and vanilla together and gradually add flour mixture. Stir in the rest of the chopped chocolate. Use an ice cream scoop to drop lumps of dough onto lined baking sheets. Bake at 180C for 12 minutes until cookies are flat and cracked but slightly moist inside. Allow to cool then store in an airtight container.

The lovely people at Eat Out have nominated me for Best Local Food Blog in SA so if you like my recipes please head on over to their page and vote! 

Embossed spiced butter Christmas biscuits

Years of working in magazines meant that, thanks to print deadlines, Christmas was celebrated in September (if you're lucky) so by the time December arrived (and the magazine world has just put it's Easter issue to bed) I was in no mood for Christmas. Go away, gammon! Thankfully, the television industry has once again restored my intense love of the festive season and I can finally celebrate Christmas when it's actually Christmas. If you're struggling to get into the spirit, then baking a batch of cookies should sort you out. Filling up your home with the smell of spices will definitely put you in the mood. And your family will thank you for the nibbles! 

I spotted the cute idea of embossing cookies on Pinterest (isn't this where all great ideas come from?!) and thought it would make some beautiful edible tree trinkets. Such a beautifully simple idea and so easy to do. 

Spiced butter Christmas cookies

Makes 25

140g butter, softened

1 egg

500g Sasko Quick Treats cookie mix

60ml cornflour

1 tsp mixed spiced

½ tsp ground ginger

½ tsp ground cinnamon

pinch of nutmeg

1 tsp vanilla extract

Royal icing

1 egg white, beaten

2 cups icing sugar, sifted

squeeze of lemon juice

Cream the butter until fluffy then beat in the egg until combined.

Mix the Sasko Quick Treats cookie mix, cornflour and spices and add it to the butter mix with the vanilla.

Beat until combined and a soft dough forms.

Roll the dough out on a floured surface to 1/2cm thick and cut out with cookie cutters.

Place on a lined baking sheet and bake in a preheated oven at 180C until golden brown.

Allow to cool before icing with royal icing.

To make the royal icing, whisk the egg white gently then add the icing sugar until a stiff paste forms. Add the lemon juice and stir before placing in a piping bag.

TIP: To make the embossing, dab a clean sponge in black gel colouring then lightly dab onto a clean rubber stamp (be careful not to apply too much). Gently press the stamp onto the cookie and lift. Allow to dry thoroughly. 

Double stuffed chocolate chip cookies

What's better than a chocolate chip cookie? A chocolate chip cookie 

with another cookie inside. Duh. 

The moment my little cousin posted a pic of this concoction that she 
created on Facebook, I fell in love. 
Why has no one thought of this before I ask?! It's just genius. 

A cookie inside of a cookie? Get out. 

Photograph by Gunther Schubert of Vorsprung Studio

To fast-forward to the eating part, I used a super easy chocolate chip cookie mix 'cos incase you needed permission, it doesn't matter how you get there, people. I'm here to tell you that sometimes, cheating is okay. Especially when there is eating involved. Now, excuse me while I go figure out what else I can stuff into the middle of a chocolate chip cookie...

Double stuffed chocolate chip cookies
Makes 24

1 x 500g Sasko Quick Treats Cookie Mix
140g butter
1 extra large egg
1 cup chocolate chips
24 chocolate sandwich cookies

Preheat oven to 180C. Grease and line 2 baking trays.Place the cookie mix into a mixing bowl and rub in the butter until the mixture looks like breadcrumbs.Whisk the egg then mix into the flour to form a soft dough. Stir in the chocolate chips.Form the dough into golf-sized balls then press flat in your hand, insert a cookie into the middle and wrap the dough around it. Place on the lined baking trays and bake in the preheated oven for 10-15 minutes or until golden brown.

TIP: For chewy cookies, remove them from the oven before they turn golden brown then cool on a cooling rack. If you prefer your cookies crunchy then bake a little longer and cool them on the baking tray.