Chocolate Orange Cookies

It's always exciting to try new recipes, and even more so to tweak recipes in your own individual way to make something extra special, but for me, the most exciting thing is to create a recipe that's completely your own. This is the first sweet recipe that I've ever invented myself, and as something from the baking realm it was quite daunting - things can go so easily wrong (and trust me, they did a couple of times) but when it works you get the greatest sense of achievement, well, in my opinion anyway.

So here's my little creation: Chocolate Orange Cookies. They're sort of cracked and glossy on the top and soft and squidgy in the middle - my ideal texture for a cookie. The orange flavour comes through quite strongly which is just my own taste, and the slightly bitter tones of the dark chocolate really set of the sweetness of the orange beautifully.

Chocolate Orange Cookies
300g dark chocolate
50g butter
2 eggs
170g soft light brown sugar
half a teaspoon of baking powder
125g plain flour
Zest of 2 oranges
Juice of half an orange

Preheat your oven to 170 degrees.
Melt the butter with 200g of the chocolate, set aside. Chop the remaining chocolate into chunks.
Beat the eggs, sugar and zest until pale and fluffy, then add the melted chocolate mixture.
Sieve in the flour and baking powder and combine.
Add the orange juice and the remaining dark chocolate chunks, then spoon on to a lined baking tray and bake for 0-5 minutes until they are beginning to crack on the top.
Leave to cool on the baking tray for a few minutes before transferring on to a cooling rack as they'll be very fragile and near impossible to transfer at first.

I gave these to a friend as part of her Christmas present and she seemed to thoroughly enjoy them and told me that the rest of her family were fans too, so I'm thrilled - I hope you try them, and try your own recipes too :-)

Oatmeal and Raisin Cookies

More delicious and delectable delights from the Hummingbird Bakery Cookbook you'll be pleased to hear!! After the Cheesecake and Blueberry Cake I thought I'd try something equally tempting but a little less artery-clogging next. So I flipped straight to the cookies section and settled fairly quickly on these treats. They went down a storm yesterday, I came in to work with a fairly hefty box full of them and my bag was considerably lighter on the way home...only a few crumbs left! Soft and chewy, they are the perfect mid-morning or afternoon snack, as my office colleagues will attest to!! One was converted to raisins after years of thinking she didn't like them, which I think is the highest achievement and greatest feeling of satisfaction possible when people try something you've made!!

Oatmeal and Raisin Cookies:

270g unsalted butter

160g caster sugar

160g soft dark brown sugar

2 eggs

380g plain flour

1 tsp salt

1 tsp bicarbonate of soda

1/2 tsp ground cinnamon

110g rolled oats

220g raisins

Cream together the butter and sugars, before adding the eggs one at a time.

Sift together the flour, cinnamon, bicarbonate of soda and salt, then mix in the oats.

Combine the dry ingredients with the butter, sugar and eggs, before mixing in the raisins.

Place balls of dough slightly smaller than a golf ball on to a baking tray, leaving plenty of space between each one to allow them to spread, and bake in the oven at 170 degreees for about 12 minutes.

As is usual with cookies, be brave and take them out when they are only just turning golden. They will still be very soft and need a delicate touch so that they don't fall apart when you transfer them on to a wire rack to cool. Leave for a few minutes until they are solid enough to pick up, then munch away!!



These cookies really are lovely. Raisins of course add to the sweetness and chewy-factor, and are hugged by soft cookie in which the cinnamon flavour is very delicate, just enough to give a warming flavour to the cookies, and the addition of brown sugar gives a slightly toffee-ish essence.

A doddle to make and perfect with a nice cup of tea, you can't go wrong!!

Chocolate Centered Biscuits

January is a bit of a difficult month really isn't it? What with the post Christmas blues, the long gap between paydays and the gloomy weather, it's not the most cheery of months, and this year I've finished it off with a monster cold. Typical. However, just before I got the lurgy, I'd made a batch of these biscuits from Jamie Oliver's website, which let me tell you, have made feeling groggy a whole lot more bearable!! Between cups of Lemsip and tea, I've been sneakily eating these little delights which are a tasty treat and really easy to whip up.

They are definitely a biscuit rather than a cookie, the dough is rather dry to work with, which doesn't cause any problems, but results in a crunchier biscuit, especially when it has cooled. However, when warm and fresh from the oven it still has a bit of give - and as usual I take mine out of the oven a little early to keep them slightly soft - and the inside is a mouth-watering delight of melted chocolate. The recipe is to make a batch of chocolate dough and leave to chill, then cutting out two sets of circles, one about 4cm diameter and the other about 5cm diameter. You then place a chunk of chocolate, any type you like, on the small circle, and lay the bigger circle over the top, pressing the edges down to stop any chocolate escaping when they bake.

The first batch I baked were a little overdone for my liking, and they came out a little cracked on the top and crunchier than I would have liked. Jamie admits in this recipe that the dough produces a cracked and rustic look, so the first batch weren't necessarily worse than the second, it was merely personal taste. I took the second lot out a minute or two earlier and they had a much smoother surface, delicate to the touch, and completely divine when I broke into them.

These weren't quite as sinfully decadent as the Hummingbird Double Chocolate Cookies, but definitely a delicious treat, perfect with a cup of tea and a good book on a weekend afternoon...or curled up in bed watching films waiting for the sneezes to stop!! As much as it pains me, I think it's time I move on from my chocolate biscuit phase now, or I might have trouble getting my skinny jeans on...ah well, it was fun while it lasted, something with vegetables next time I think.

Hummingbird Double Chocolate Cookies

All this snow has done nothing for my waistline. It inspires in me the desire to trudge about in my wellies (a Christmas gift which have become invaluable during the last few weeks, plus, you know, they're really pretty!!), making snow angels and snowmen, kidding myself that this is all 'exercise' then returning to the comfort and cosiness of home to whip a batch of treats, which obviously I deserve as a reward for all my hard work... and what better treat is there than a huge hit of warm, gooey, rich, soft cookies? And to make them even more irresistible, they are an absolute doddle to make. There is nothing, and I mean nothing, stopping you from making these...which brings me back to the old waistline issue. Hey ho, one has to prioritise, and I don't know about you but I prioritise chocolate.

I have searched high and low for the best double chocolate chip cookies. I've bought many recipe books dedicated to cookies, I've trawled the internet, I've asked friends and family...and now, I can put my hand on heart and tell you that I have found the best recipe, and it has been sitting in front of me for months! Once again, I turned to my relatively new friend, the Hummingbird Bakery cookbook. (I think I might be addicted to this book. It seems all I ever make are delicious morsels from it, Cupcakes, Brownies, Cakes... but I promise to find recipes elsewhere from now on, I'm going cold turkey.)


So, one particularly cold weekend after finding untouched snow in Fulham Palace Gardens and promptly making lots of footprints and smiley faces in it, I shook the snow of my wellies and made my way into the kitchen to prepare my reward for all that virtuous exercise. First, melt lots of dark chocolate and butter over a pan of simmering water (I know, it's a good start isn't it?!), and when it's cooled beat in a couple of eggs. Then add flour and baking powder and a pinch of salted if using unsalted butter, and mix until smooth and glossy and utterly irresistible. Then throw in some generously sized chunks of chocolate, any type you want, I used dark again. I'm a firm believer that if you're making chocolate chip cookies, they should really be chocolate chunk cookies, and the chunks should be big so that when you take a bite you get a big old mouthful of gooey chocolatey goodness! Then place in dollops on a greased baking tray.



Then lick the bowl clean (I guarantee you won't be able to resist) while the cookies bake for about 10-15 minutes until they begin to crack on the top. As usual with cookies, I took them out a little early because they continue to cook while they cool, and besides, I love it when they're still squidgy inside.



Then there really is nothing left to do but to devour greedily while warm with a cup of tea and watch the snow fall outside. Alternatively, if you are lacking the snow, just tuck in! These keep really well in an air tight container too, ours lasted a week until they were all gone - yes, a whole week! - and they were just as squidgy at the end of that week. So I thoroughly recommend these delicious cookies; they're easy and quick to make, completely irresistible, and as is tradition with most Hummingbird recipes, absolutely jam packed with chocolate!!

Pear and Almond Cake and Chocolate Chip Cookies

I recently bought Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall's book River Cottage Everyday, which I've been pouring over for hours, accumulating an ever growing list of recipes I want to try, and longing for a life out in the countryside, with land, a big vegetable patch with what seems to be a relentless supply of produce during every season, a few chickens, ducks, maybe a goat or two...ahhh, to live Hugh's life!!! Anyway, fantasy life aside, the book is filled to the brim with delicious, comforting and homely recipes, which avoid the pitfall of most recipe books - hideously long lists of ingredients to buy for one single recipe.


I finally settled on a pear and almond cake, which was on the television programme River Cottage 2009 too, and looked too good to pass up. I've never really given much thought to pears, I tend to get over excited by apples, pumpkin, squash, and so on when autumn rolls around, however good old Hugh inspired me to give the humble pear some attention this year. And I'm really, really, really glad I did. I think this is probably the nicest cake I've ever made (well, the Chocolate Cake I made is a fairly strong contender, maybe I have two favourites!!).



The pears are quartered and cored, and softened in butter and sugar (I used vanilla infused sugar for a little extra delicious-ness) which are then set aside to cool while the sponge batter is made. This is a mix of the usual suspects - butter sugar eggs and flour, but with the addition of ground almonds for an extra moist sponge which also gives it a denser texture. The butter is whipped until pale and glossy, then the sugar is added, followed by the eggs, then flour and ground almonds. This produces a satisfyingly gloopy batter, thick and heavy, which is then transferred into a lined cake tin, and the pears are laid on top of the mix, with the sugar and butter caramel-syrup poured on top - for extra nutritional value!!






Then bake in the oven at about 180 degrees for 40 minutes. The pears will sink slightly into the cake, which is a little less pretty than when it first goes in the oven, but when you slice into it you discover hidden gems of pear, soft and yielding, sweet and buttery, encased in moist, dense and almond flavoured sponge, which is truly lovely.

Now, I'm not going to lie, we got through an embarrassingly large amount of this cake in a very short amount of time. However, there was a distinct chocolate shortage going on in the house, so I made a batch of chocolate chip cookies - using Terry's Chocolate Orange to give it a bit of a Christmassy feel! Another Hugh recipe, I melted some butter, then beat it into some caster sugar and soft brown sugar, before adding eggs and flour. Eight minutes in the oven, and hey presto, chocolate fix sorted!!

Chewy or Crunchy??

There's nothing quite like the smell of freshly home made cookies to welcome you when you walk through the front door. There is something so comforting, so soothing and so tempting about them, like the weight of the world has been lifted off your shoulders just for a few moments while you bite into the warm, chewy, chocolatey treat.

Cookies are universal comfort food that I don't think anyone would pass up...from cookies and milk before bed, to a delicious offering for visitors, to home made gifts or just a cup of tea and a cookie mid morning, or mid afternoon...or any time of the day really (let's be honest, when would you pass up on a homemade cookie?!). They make us feel better when we are down, they make us feel appreciated if someone has made the effort to bake for us, and they give us a little energy boost when we need it...it's the ideal remedy for that afternoon slump at work!! And they are so simple to make!!

They are also so versatile, I doubt you could find a person who doesn't have their favourite flavour, or indeed someone who claims not to like cookies at all!! They lend themselves so well to an array of flavours; there's chocolate of course, whichever chocolate you choose, oatmeal and raisin, apple and cinnamon, ginger, blueberry and almond, apple and sultana, or even just the humble butter cookie. The list is endless, and it's a vehicle that you can use to try out different combinations of ingredients.

Quite apart from the flavours added to the cookie, there is the question of texture. Are you a crunchy person or a squidgy person? Do you like them crispy on the outside and chewy inside, or do you prefer a harder, crunchier treat? Sugar and cooking time are the key when deciding this. More white sugar will make them crispier, and more brown will make them chewier, so a combination of these can create a cookie to your taste. But slightly more importantly in my opinion is the cooking time. Often we are tempted to leave them in the oven until they are completely golden as this is so aesthetically pleasing, however this will result in a very crispy crunchy cookie that although lovely, is not to my taste. For a softer cookie, you must be brave and take them out when they are only just browning around the edges, and are still soft to the touch. They may look uncooked, but they will continue to cook as they cool, and the result is a beautifully soft and chewy cookie.

So here is a recipe I tried out on the weekend, it's a combination of white and demerera sugar (although it probably would have benefited from some soft brown sugar for an even more chewy texture). Also, I say chocoalte chunks here as I have an aversion to the 'chocolate chips' you can buy in a bag...they taste suspiciously un-chocolatey, and if you're going to bake chocolate chip cookies, you should probably be able to taste the chocolate!!!

Chocolate Chunk Cookies

280g caster sugar

170g demerera sugar

225g unsalted butter

2 eggs

1 1/2 tsp vanilla essence

450g plain flour

1 1/4 tsp baking powder (this makes for quite an airy cookie, if you want a denser texture, reduce this amount)

3/4 tsp salt

as many chocolate chunks as you can squeeze in!!

Beat the butter and sugars until pale and fluffy.

Add the vanilla essence and eggs one at a time.

Combine the flour, salt and baking powder in a separate bowl.

Add the flour mix to the wet mix gradually and combine until you have a fairly sturdy cookie dough...it does take some elbow grease!!

Add your chocoalte chunks, then make balls about 1 1/2 inches in size and place on a baking tray. Be sure to leave space between them as they will spread when they are cooking.

Bake in a preheated oven at 180 degrees for about 10 minutes, or until they are just about browning around the edges, but still look a little undercooked, then be brave and take them out!!!!

Leave to cool, then eat eat eat!!!

These lasted quite well when wrapped in cling film, and were perfect with a cup of tea on a rainy Sunday afternoon!