Happy 2019 guys! I’m finally back in Dubai and already playing host to newly weds who decided to stopover on the way back from their honeymoon. Anyhoooo, a lot of you asked me the recipe for the chocolate chip cookies I baked a few days ago as a surprise to cheer up a friend (all this behind the scenes/what’s happening in my life action happens on my instagram account .. you must be feeling left out now if you’re not already following me there .. hint hint). So I’m going to cut to the chase and get straight to the recipe before the love birds wake up and ask ‘so what’s the plan for today?‘ (Ps: I also baked them a cake which is also just on instagram 🙊)

Serving: makes approximately 15 cookies

Ingredients: 
All Purpose Flour: 1/2 cup
Caster Sugar: 4 tbsp
Light or dark brown sugar: 4 tbsp
Unsalted butter (at room temperature): 60 grams
Vanilla Essence: 1 tsp
Baking Soda: 1 tsp
Salt: 1/2 tsp
Unsweetened Cocoa Powder: 4 tbsp
Semi-sweet chocolate chips: 1/2 cup (plus a few more to sprinkle on top)
Egg: 4 tbsp of a beaten egg.

Method:

• Pre-heat your oven to 180 degrees Celsius. Line your baking tray with parchment paper and set aside. Do not overlook this step. Your cookies are depending on it.
• In a bowl, mix together the unsalted butter and sugars until creamy. Add the egg, followed by vanilla essence and whisk together. I just used a fork for this step.
• In a separate bowl, sift together the all purpose flour, cocoa powder, baking soda and salt. Mix with the help of a spoon or spatula. Mix in the chocolate chips.
• Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients bowl and fold the mixture with the help of a spatula. The batter is going to look really messy at this stage. It’s ok, you’ve done nothing wrong.  I promise they will still end up looking like cookies.
• With the help of a spoon, scoop out equal sized cookies on to the baking tray. It’s impossible to get a proper shape at this stage, but as I said above the magic will unfold as they bake. Make sure you don’t flatten the cookie as they will spread during baking. Also leave equal space between each one as they will spread slightly while baking.
• Add a few more chocolate chips to the top of each cookie.
• Bake the cookies in your pre-heated oven at 180 degrees Celsius for approximately 5 minutes OR until the edges of the cookies are golden brown. Every oven is different so keep an eye on these cookies while baking. As soon as the edges are slightly firm, remove the cookies from the oven with the help of a flat spoon (I just use my frying kitchen spoon). They will appear very soft at this stage, but they will become more firm as they cool. Do not over bake as they otherwise won’t remain chewy from the centre.
• Allow the cookies to cool completely although to be honest they taste so good while slightly warm and the chocolate chips just melt in your mouth.
• That’s it! Now hide the weighing scale and start munching on all that hard work today.

Until baking mania strikes again …

‘Let’s Keep It Strictly Lighthearted!‘