Chocolate Chip Walnut Cookies

Simple & Delicious Crunchy Choc-Chip Cookies

Choco-chip cookies have to be the most popular type of cookies in the world. After all, who doesn’t love biting into bits of chocolate in a delicious butter cookie.  Would you believe that the chocolate chip cookie was discovered by accident when a few pieces of chocolate added to a regular cookie did not melt.

This is a very simple and basic chocolate chip cookie recipe. You need to add both brown and white sugar in this cookie for the right colour and taste; however I had ran out of brown sugar and used only the white which got me crispy cookie (See Tips below). Also instead of store-bought chocolate chips, I just cut up some cooking chocolate to create chunks. I simply love Walnuts and I add it everywhere I get a chance. I have added Roasted Walnuts to this mix for a nice crunch. You can skip it for a traditional chocolate chip cookie.

Makes around 26 medium sized cookies

What you need:

Butter - ½  cup
Brown Sugar – ½ cup
White Sugar – ¼ cup
Eggs – 1
Vanilla Extract – 1 tsp (You can also use Caramel or Almond Extract)
All Purpose Flour – 1 ¼ cups
Baking Soda – ½ tsp
Salt – a pinch
Semi-Sweet or Dark Chocolate Chips or chunks – 1 cup
Roasted Walnuts (Optional) – 1 cup chopped

How we do it:

Preheat oven to 190^o C. Line a cookie sheet with parchment or aluminium foil.

Melt the butter in a big bowl. Add the sugar and blend together. Now add the eggs and extract and mix together.

In a separate bowl sift the flour and baking soda. Add to the wet mixture in batches stirring gently until well combined.

 

Finally stir in the chocolate chips and chopped walnuts.

 

Drop small balls of dough on the cookie sheet. Leave enough space in between for the dough to spread  and evenly cook. Do not cook too many cookies at the same time; do small batches.

 Bake for 11-13 minutes until the sides of the cookies turn lightly brown. The cookies will still be soft when you take them out of the oven. Do not push the panic button. Just let it cool on a wire rack while you work on the next batch.

 

Enjoy slightly warm with a glass of cold milk.

Yummm!!!!

Tips:

• Always bake on parchment paper or foil, this way you can slide off the cookies as soon as they are out of the oven, this way they won’t continue cooking on the hot cookie sheet.
• Just adding a pinch of salt will balance out the sweetness. You can increase it to a teaspoon if you like to have a sugar-salt combo.
• To get a caramel flavour, you can brown the butter on a pan before you add the sugar.
• The sugar used can determine the texture of your cookie. Complete or higher white sugar will make your cookie crunchy and crisp. A higher brown sugar ratio will make the cookie more soft and chewy. I like to use equal amounts of brown and white sugar to get a cookie that is crisp on the outside and chewy on the inside.
• For a fully chocolate cookie, add 1 tablespoon of cocoa powder to the flour.
• You can also eliminate the Vanilla extract and add ¼ tsp of Cinnamon for a unique flavour.
• Use an ice cream scoop to drop the balls of dough. This will ensure equal sized cookies.

 

Love to hear what you think!

[Facebook Comment For Blogger]

Sugar Cookies with Honey Glaze Icing

 

I wanted to share this recipe in time for Easter, but had gone away for the holidays and just didn’t have the time to post it.

I love sugar cookies because they are so versatile, you can make them in any shape and size and with this simple icing you can make them as colourful as you want. Kids would totally adore these cookies for their sugary goodness and colour. They make a great holiday treat. They are a bit high on the sweet side. So if you are making these cookies for adults, maybe you would like to go a little light on the sugar or replace it with Stevia or Sugar-Free.

I have used honey as a nutritive option to create that beautiful glaze on the cookies. But honey has a strong flavour and if you do not like that, you can also use corn syrup or make your own thick sugar syrup. I just had these two colours on hand with me and tried that. Get Creative and use more colours & make it interesting.

For the Sugar Cookies

What we need:

Butter – 1 cup (softened)
White Sugar – 1 cup

All-purpose flour – 2 ½ cups plus a little more

Egg – 1 whole

Salt – a pinch (avoid this if you use salted butter)

Vanilla Extract – 1 tsp

 


How we do it:

Preheat oven to 200 ^o C.

Beat the sugar along with the butter until its fully incorporated.
Add the Egg and Extract and blend well.



Sift the flour, baking powder and salt and add it to the egg mixture little by little until it forms a soft dough.

Roll on a floured surface and cut out your cookies.

Place the dough between two sheets of plastic wrap. This ensures that you not only get a smooth surface but the dough also does not stick to your rolling pin.

Place on a cookie sheet laid with parchment paper. DO NOT grease. And bake for 8-10 minutes.

 

The baking time may vary from oven to oven. Just keep an eye on your cookies after 7 minutes. You want the tops to look dry but it should not get too brown on the edges.

Take out of the oven and let cool.

 

Your Sugar Cookies are ready!!

Only ice your cookie after it’s completely cooled.

For the Cookie Glaze:

What we need:
Icing/Powdered Sugar – 1 cup
Honey – 1 Tblsp
Milk – 1 tblsp plus another teaspoon
Food Colouring

How we do it:

Mix the honey and 1 tblsp milk to the sugar and blend well.

If icing is too thick add another teaspoon of the milk. The milk maintains the consistency of the icing. Too little milk and it becomes difficult to spread of the cookie. Too thin and it won’t stick. The best thing to do is to make the icing and test it on a cookie and wait till it dries. If it’s too runny add a bit of flour and if too dry, add a bit of milk to make it smooth.

Now divide the icing into two bowls and add the food colouring. I use liquid food colours.

While icing the cookies, you may notice that the icing which was perfect when you began has after a while gone a bit thick. Just heat it for 10 second on the microwave if that happens and you icing will get smooth again.

Once all the cookies are iced, you can just leave them to rest for a while till it sets. You can also refrigerate the glazed cookies for a short time to speed up the setting time. Once the icing has set, it will no longer be sticky but still be shiny. 

I got a little lazy with my icing and didn't do a very neat job.

 

 
These cookies not only look great but are a delicious snack.

Love to hear what you think!

[Facebook Comment For Blogger]

Sugar-Free Crunchy Almond Cookies

A Simple Recipe for Eggless and Sugar-free Almond Cookies with a Crunch



With Easter just around the corner these are the perfect adult cookies - Eggless and without Sugar. You can also substitute regular Bbtter with a low fat Spread. But I must warn you that butter gives it that melt-in-the-mouth taste which you may not get from low fat. This recipe is super easy and will take under 30 minutes to make, from scratch. 

Makes Around 20 cookies.

What we need

 

Almonds – 1 cup (with skin)
Flour – 2 cups
Sugar-free = ¾ cup (I use Canderel)
Butter or margarine softened - 1 cup
Almond/Vanilla Essence – 1 tsp

How we do it

Line a cookie sheet or baking tray with parchment paper or aluminium foil. Preheat oven to 160^oC.

Roughly chop the almonds. I usually put them in a zipper bag and crush them using a pestle. I like the almond crunch when I bite into my cookie and so like them to be just roughly chopped. If you want the cookies to be smooth, you can chop the almonds in a food processor to get finer bits.

 

That's how I chop almonds

I always use almonds with the skin for cookies as they not only look attractive giving that touch of brown to the cookies but are also rich in antioxidants. Alternatively, you can soak the almonds in water and peel away the skin.

Beat the butter well.

 

Add the sugar free and keep beating until its well blended. Add the essence. Now slowly add the flour, a little at a time, to make a soft dough.

Now add the chopped almonds and blend well into the dough and make it into a round ball.

 

Roll out the dough on a floured surface. Now using a cookie cutter, cut out the cookies. If the almonds are roughly chopped, it may not be very easy to roll out and cut the cookies. But the taste will make up for this inconvenience.

 

 

 Place them on the cookie sheet and bake for 12-15 minutes until slightly golden.

 

 

 Transfer to another plate and let cool. The cookies might be a slightly soft coming out of the oven, but once cooled they will be harden.

 

 

 

Enjoy guilt free!

 

Love to hear what you think!

[Facebook Comment For Blogger]