These are the nicest chocolate chip cookies I’ve found and I’ve tested a lot!!! You can make them the size of normal biscuits or larger if you prefer. I find that the amount of dough that the recipe makes can be divided intwo. Freeze half in a sausage shape for another day, and bake the remaining half for instant gratification! You should get approximately 24 normal-sized biscuits from half the mix.

Ingredients

2 cups plus 2 tablespoons plain flour

1/2 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

3/4 cup butter, melted and cooled

1 cup soft brown sugar

1/2 cup granulated sugar

1 large plus 1 small egg approximately

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

1 cup chocolate chips

1 cup chopped walnuts  (optional)

How to Make Them

1. Beat butter and sugar together until blended and smooth.
2. Mix in eggs and vanilla extract.
3. Add flour, baking powder and salt and mix until just combined.
4. Stir in the chocolate chips and walnuts if used.
5. Lay silicone shets on your baking trays (you’ll need 2 trays or bake in 2 batches). Set oven to 325F /170C / Fan oven 160C / Gas Mark 3
6. Place dessert spoonfuls evenly on baking sheet. (Scoop up the dough with the dessert spoon and scrape it out onto the sheet with a teaspoon. It will spread out flat as it bakes, so no need to flatten the heaps!
7. Bake in centre of oven for about 15 minutes (check after 10 mins). They should be just a pale golden brown, not dark.
8. Remove from oven and cool on a rack. They will crisp up as they cool. If you want them chewy you will need to make bigger biscuits and take out of the oven when very pale.

Tags: baking powder, butter, chocolate chips, egg, granulated sugar, light brown sugar, plain flour, salt, vanilla, walnuts
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These are very easy to make. The recipe makes quite a large quantity, about 40-60 depending on how big you make them! When I make these, I bake 1/3 of the mixture, and freeze 2/3 (divided into 2 packages).. If you don’t want many biscuits at a time, then bake 1/4 and freeze the rest divided  into 3 separate packages. You could just make half the quantity!

Ingredients

2 cups plain flour

1/2 teaspoon baking powder

1 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/2 cup margarine

1/2 cup oil (vegetable or sunflower)

1 cup soft brown sugar

1 cup granulated sugar

2 eggs

2 cups porridge oats

1 cup chocolate chips (optional)

How to make them

Preheat the oven to 350F/ 175 C/ 165 C Fan Oven/ Gas Mark 3

1. Put margarine, oil, brown sugar and white sugar in a bowl and beat until smooth.
2. Beat in eggs one at a time.
3. Gradually stir in the flour, baking powder, bicarbonate of soda and salt and mix until well blended.
4. Now mix in the porridge oats. The mixture will be fairly stiff by now.
5. Pull off small balls of dough and roll quickly between hands or scoop a large teaspoonful and scrape off onto baking tray with another spoon.
6. Place the balls of dough onto the lined baking tray. They will spread out flat as they bake, so don’t place too close together. You can gently flatten then a little with a fork if you like. Do not grease the tray if you haven’t got any lining paper or silicone sheet as there is enough fat in the biscuits already.
7. Bake for 10-12 minutes in the oven until the edges are golden.
8. Allow to cool a little, then transfer to a cooling rack.

Tags: baking powder, bicarbonate of soda, chocolate chips, cookies, Cowboy, eggs, granulated sugar, margarine, oil, plain flour, porridge oats, salt, soft brown sugar
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This recipe is ideal for making cut-out biscuits to ice for Christmas or parties but are just as nice eaten plain.

Ingredients

85g soft butter, unsalted is best but not essential

100g caster sugar

1 large egg

1/2 teaspoon vanilla essence

200g plain flour

1/2 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

How to make them

1. Cream the butter and sugar together until pale and creamy.

2. Beat in the egg and vanilla essence.

3. In another bowl, stir together the flour, baking powder and salt until well combined.

4. Add the dry ingredients to the creamed mixture and mix together gently.

5. If you’ve got time, wrap the dough in clingfilm and flatten a bit, and put in fridge for about an hour to   make it easier to handle. If you can’t wait and want to make the biscuits straight away, you may need to use some flour as you roll them out to prevent sticking.

6. Preheat the oven to 180C / 350F / 160C fan oven / Gas Mark 4

7. Sprinkle flour on the work top and roll out the dough to about 5mm thick. Then cut the dough into shapes, keeping the blade of the cutter dusted with flour to prevent sticking.

8. Place on lined baking sheet and bake in the oven for 8 – 10 mins until they are slightly golden around the edges. Cool on rack. Then ice if required using glace icing.

This recipe makes about 20 large biscuits. It is easy to double the quantity and make lots of small biscuits!

Tags: baking powder, butter, caster sugar, eggs, plain flour, salt, vanilla essence
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These are delicious, very crisp, and they keep very well in an airtight container (if you can leave them long enough!). Worth making a double quantity – then you won’t have half an egg left over! You could freeze half the dough for another batch later. (Make as far as step 3 and freeze the dough in a ball. Or you could go as far as rolling the biscuits in oats and then freeze them spread out on a tray. When they are frozen, put them in a bag and keep in the freezer. When you want to use them, just spread them out on a greased baking tray, allow to thaw for about 15 mins and bake. They will probably bake from frozen, but I haven’t tried it!

Ingredients

3 oz (75g) soft margarine

3 oz (75g) caster sugar

half a beaten egg

few drops of vanilla essence

1 oz (25g) porridge oats

4oz (100g) self raising flour

1/2  teaspoon baking powder

about 5 glace cherries, quartered

about 1/2 cup of porridge oats to roll the biscuits in  on a plate or flat dish

How to Make Them

Set the oven to 325F, 160C, gas mark 3, fan oven 150C.

1. Put margarine and sugar in a bowl and beat together until soft and creamy.

2. Add the egg and vanilla essence and beat together to combine.

3. Add the oats, flour and baking powder. Mix until it sticks together like dough.

4  Pull off small lumps of dough about the size of a table tennis ball (about 1″ diameter). Roll into a ball between palms of hands, then roll in oats to coat.

5. Place on a greased baking tray and flatten gently with a fork.

6. Place a quarter cherry on top of each biscuit and press in slightly to secure.

7. Bake for about 15 – 20 miutes until pale golden brown.

8. Cool on a wire rack and store in an airtight tin.

Tags: caster sugar, egg, glace cherries, margarine, porridge oats, self raising flour, vanilla essence
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Makes about 36 cookies

Ingredients

2 cups plain flour

1 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda

1 teaspoon baking powder

1 teaspoon salt

1 cup butter

3/4 cup caster sugar

1 cup soft brown sugar

2 large eggs

2 teaspoons vanilla essence

3 cups porridge oats

1 1/2 cups raisins or sultanas

How to make them

In a bowl, whisk together the flour, bicarbonate of soda, baking powder and salt and set aside.

In a large bowl, cream together butter, caster sugar, brown sugar, eggs and vanilla essence. Start with a slow speed and gradually increase. Beat until mixture is light and fluffy and mixture lightens in colour.

Stir the flour mixture into the creamed mixture until no flour is visible. Don’t overmix – just stop when the flour is mixwd in.

Now add oats and raisins and stir until mixed in.

Divide the mixture into 3 and form 2 parts into, wrap in clingfilm and freeze.

Using a cookie scoop (holds about 2 tablespoons dough), put scoopfuls on lightly greased baking sheet about 2″ apart. Or roll into balls.

Bake for 10 – 13 minutes at 350F until golden brown.

Cool on wire rack.

Store in airtight tin.

Tags: baking powder, bicarbonate of soda, butter, caster sugar, egg, plain flour, porridge oats, raisins, salt, soft brown sugar, vanilla essence
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