This recipe came from the Guardian Baking Supplement. A mine of yummy recipes. Always in search of a good cookie I tried the Oatmeal and Raisin version of this. Be warned it took over half the kitchen, so maybe half the quantities!
When I made up the dough I piled the whole lot onto some clingfilm, rolled it tightly into a tube and stuck it in the fridge to chill. Then sliced of half inch thick slices and baked it for about the 14 mins.
Enjoy!
Clarex
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Now, I really don't recommend baking this recipe "as is", without the variations - that would be just too weird and mean - but the standard recipe is here so you can make up your own. Cookies need big bits in them, chunks of chocolate, rolled oats or granola, dried fruit such as raisins or apricots, or seeds and nuts. You can make the mixture ahead and keep it in 5cm diameter logs rolled in non-stick parchment in the freezer, twisting the ends the way they do on boiled sweets. Then just defrost it a little and slice off discs of dough as you need them. I like to make my own ice cream sandwiches with these, sticking a round disc of vanilla ice cream between two large cookies.
Makes a truckload of cookies!
225g unsalted butter, softened
375g light soft brown sugar
50g caster sugar
3 tsp vanilla extract
2 large eggs
400g plain flour
2 level tsp bicarbonate of soda
Beat the butter, brown sugar, caster sugar and extract until light and fluffy. Beat in the eggs, one at a time, then sift the flour and bicarb together and stir that through. Spoon tablespoon-sized dollops on to a greased tray and bake in a 170C (150C fan-assisted) oven for 12-14 minutes until barely puffed and just starting to colour at the edges.
Tried and tested
Variations
For oatmeal and raisin cookies, reduce the flour to 300g and add 200g rolled oats, 1 tsp cinnamon and 200g raisins. For double peanut butter cookies, replace the butter with 225g crunchy peanut butter (and a little milk if necessary) and stir in 200-400g unsalted or washed peanuts. For dark chocolate chunk cookies, replace 50g flour with 50g cocoa and stir in 400g dark or milk chocolate chopped roughly. For apricot and almond white chocolate cookies, stir in at the end 200g chopped apricots, 200g chopped blanched almonds and 200g chopped white chocolate.
Update 19/09/09:
Made the peanut butter version (1/2 volume) and added in 100g dark chocolate chopped into small pieces. Next time I would go half and half with the peanut butter and butter.
Original recipe by Dan Lepard can be found
here
