C is for Cookie

Raining today; the first really wet day so far. Stewart and I went to Waitrose this morning for groceries. Waitrose is kind of like Whole Foods, I guess - they have lots of organic options, it costs slightly more than Sainsbury's or Tesco, and they have their own store brand. I happen to love the packaging, too. It's pretty recognizable. Stewart and Jonathan are going on holiday - a barge trip in Wales - so Stew got supplies for that. and I tried to figure out what to cook for dinner the next week. Also picked up some rubber boots and a hat for Jed.

Back to the house. Jen had work to do, so I decided to make cookies to occupy Jed. I found a recipe that looked pretty good, but i decided to change it up a bit.

Hazelnut Chocolate Chunk Cookies

200g / 7 oz unsalted butter, at room temperature

85g / 3oz light muscovado sugar - a sticky brown sugar.

85g / 3oz golden caster sugar - caster or castor sugar is sold as "superfine" in the US.

225g / 8oz self-raising flour - if you've only got all-purpose, you can add 1/2 tsp baking powder and 1/4 tsp baking soda per pound of flour. Stir well with a fork or sift through a fine sieve.

100g / 4oz sweetened chocolate, roughly chopped. I used 50 grams each white and dark chocolate

50g / 2oz hazelnuts, also roughly chopped.

Heat oven to 190C/375 F

Beat butter, sugars, and egg until smooth.

In a separate bowl, mix flour, chocolate, and nuts. When chocolate and hazelnuts are well floured, add the dry to the wet. Mix briefly. Spoon mixture onto baking sheets.

I did about six dollops, slightly smaller than a ping-pong ball, per sheet. The cookies spread out pretty quick, so making sure they are well-spaced prevents cookie merge. I did 15 mins on the first batch, and between 10-12 minutes on the second and third, watching them pretty closely. The first batch came out fairly crisp. The shorter bake time meant crisp edges and still-gooey centers on the second two.

 Caster Sugar - a finer grind of table sugar. Dissolves well.

Muscovado sugar - aka Barbados sugar. Apparently also used in making whiskey.

 I love the Waitrose packaging. 

Chopping die haselnuss.

...and the chocolate

There was rigorous testing by our vigilant 

Quality Control division throughout the process.

My new favorite tea.

First batch.

 Comparing first and second batches.

Left: 15 mins 

Right: 12 mins

Batch 3: 10 minutes.

These smelled fantastic, and suffered grievous losses throughout the process; between quality assurance and small, grabby hands, only about half of the cookies made it into the container. The original recipe said it makes about 20, but i think we could have gotten 30 out of that batch easily.

Next time I think I'll add slightly more flour - a tablespoon or two - and moisten the dough with a little water, in an effort to get a thicker, chewier cookie. I think that would balance out the crispiness of the edges. However, I did seal up the survivors in a container, so we'll see if they end up being a bit chewier by dinner time.