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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‘Yummy, yummy, yummy’,  says Hannah!

It’s best to use proper paper muffin cases for these.

Ingredients

2 cups plain flour

1 cup caster sugar

1 tablespoon baking powder

1 teaspoon salt

2 eggs, beaten

3/4 cup milk

1/4 cup sunflower oil

4 tablespoons melted margarine or butter

1 teaspoon lemon juice

1 teaspoon vanilla essence

1 cup chocolate chips

How to make them

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

1. Stir together flour, sugar, bakng powder, salt, chocolate chips.
2. Make a well in the centre of mixture. Add beaten eggs, milk, oil, melted margarine, lemon juice and vanilla.
3. Mix gently with a fork, just enough to blend. Do not stir briskly or attempt to make the mxture creamy and smooth or your muffins will be tough. Just mix enough to ensure that all the mxture is wet. Lumps are OK!
4. Divide mixture into 12 muffin cases and bake for about 25 minutes in the centre of the oven.

Tags: baking powder, butter, caster sugar, chocolate chips, lemon, milk, plain flour, sunflower oil, vanilla essence
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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 is very straightforward and easy to make and tastes just as good as the complicated versions. It can be made plain, or pineapple and nuts may be added.

Ingredients

150g plain flour

1 teaspoon cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon baking powder

1/4 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda

100g soft brown sugar

2 eggs

125 ml oil (vegetable or sunflower types, not olive oil)

1/2 zest of one lemon and 1/2 zest of one orange ( or just use one orange OR lemon)

100g carrots, finely grated

75g chopped walnuts if desired

110 g pineapple pieces, drained and finely chopped, if desired

For the Cream Cheese Frosting

60g butter at room temperature

25g icing sugar

125g cream cheese (like Philadelphia)

How to make it

Heat the oven to 150C / 130 C fan oven / Gas Mark 2. Line a cake tin about 20cm across or aBOUT 7″ square.

1. Sift flour, cinnamon, baking powder and bicarbonate of soda together and stir in the sugar.

2. Beat the eggs together with the oil and citrus zest.

3. Stir the carrots into the oil mixture.

4. Stir the carrot and oil mixture into the flour mixture and combine as evenly as possible.

5. Fold in the nuts and pineapple if used.

6. Spoon the mixture into the tin, level out the surface and bake for about 1 hour – 1 hr 20 minutes until a skewer comes out clean. Allow to cool in the tin.

To make the icing.

1. Beat together butter and icing sugar until soft.

2. Beat in the cream cheese.

3. If you have time chill the mixture in the fridge until it’s thick and spreadable, and then spread a thick layer on top of the cake.  If you are in a hurry you can just spread the icing straight on top of the cake, but it might be a little runny.

Tags: baking powder, bicarbonate of soda, butter, cake, carrot cake, carrots, cinnamon, cream cheese, eggs, icing sugar, lemon, orange, pineapple, plain flour, soft brown sugar, sunflower oil, wallnuts
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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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