Tahini Chocolate Chip Cookies

Am on a cookie binge these days. These are SO GOOD. I love the rich flavour of sesame in basically anything - so why not cookies!

And the addition of tahini makes a regular chocolate chip cookie into a buttery, savoury, beautifully rich cookie.

And these cookies are really easy to make. I love cookie recipes where you chill the dough overnight, because when you're ready to bake them the next day, it's about 30 minutes from rolling the cookies to eating the (warm) cookies. DREAMY!

Everything Cookies

Okay, I added a bit of everything for these bad boys. And they’re PERFECT.

Take a cookie. Add peanut butter. Sprinkle over some coconut. M&Ms? Sure, they can join the party. Chocolate chips go without saying.

YES. GET IN MY MOUTH.

Thick Peanut Butter Cookies

Giant cookie and its tiny babies

HOLY CRAP.
So, I had totally given up on being able to make the kind of cookies that are tall, thick, stacked, basically CHUNKY. My go-to cookies are amazing and chewy, but they're decidedly flat.

And I was experimenting with cookie size (basically, I wanted to make a giant one) and came across this recipe and OMFG it's amazing.

Chunky - check.
Crisp outside - check.
Smooth inside - check
Delicious - CHECK CHECK CHECK.

I had a little dance after I ate my first one. That's how delicious these are.

Feel free to experiment with the size. Just under half of this recipe made a HUGE 15cm diameter cookie, and with the other just-over-half I got 8 decent cookies.

STACKED full of deliciousness

Big Chewy Choc Chip Cookies

Lock-down is allowing me to live my baking fantasies on the days I'm not in work. I obsessively searched for the perfect cookie recipe a while ago, and I have that down. 

But I'm always looking for slight variations on the theme, and these large, soft, choc chip cookies are perfection. Using melted butter really contributes to the chewy texture. You need a little prep for this, as in you need to remember to prep the dough the day before you want to bake the cookies. It's worth it.

You won't be sorry you made these. They stay good for about a week but they won't last that long.

Makes about 18 large cookies

Lemon and Poppy Seed Valentine's Shortbread

I love shortbread. I don't really care for Valentine's day.

This year, I'm defaulting to my normal level of effort - making something that I already know and love, but cutting it into the shape of a heart. And as shortbread is the the first thing I go for when I fancy making a sweet treat, heart shaped shortbread is my perfect treat for Feb 14th!

I love that it's super easy and versatile - my favourites are topping plain shortbread with cinnamon sugar, and chocolate chip shortbread. Also, having fun with biscuit cutters always pleases me.

I 💓 penguins - therefore they are Valentine themed (to me)!

I decided to combine some more of my favourite flavours  with my favourite biscuit - lemon and poppy seed! And the natural sugary buttery-ness of the shortbread goes perfectly with the zesty lemon.

It's basically the same recipe as my tried and tested shortbread with a few flavour swaps. Enjoy!

Makes about 20 medium sized biscuits

Ingredients for the biscuits

• 185g butter
• 85g caster sugar
• 200g plain flour
• 50g cornflour
• 2 tbsp poppy seeds
• Pinch salt
• Zest of one lemon

To finish

• A few tbsp granulated sugar

Oatmeal Choc Chip Cookies

Oooh, autumn is here and these cookies are a lovely cold-weather treat. These are so chunky and fluffy and like something  you'd get in a decent hipster coffee shop. 

I made two versions, one with 200g flour and one with almost double, 350g. The ones with less flour were a lot more sticky and they flattened right out. I prefer them with a bit more risen, cakey texture.

I was keeping these nut-free but this recipe would be AMAZING with the addition of a little coconut. Or, coconut and dried cranberries and leave off the chocolate. Or walnuts and maple syrup. Yum yum yum. Lots of options.

makes about 2 dozen cookies

White Chocolate Chunk Cookies - New and Improved!

I told you guys I'd give it another bash! Here's a little middle of the week pick me up.

I have modified one of my all time favourite recipes - the peanut butter chocolate chip cookies, as it has the perfect texture that I was looking for. I did a little tinkering with the recipe and I think I have struck gold! To me, this is about as close as I'm going to get to the correct flavour and texture. 

The only thing that needs improved is the white chocolate - ideally I'd have something thicker than 2 chocolate buttons but thinner than a chunk from a chocolate bar. I tried a few with 3 chocolate buttons and that is almost perfect! But then you're into a second bag of giant chocolate buttons. 

Experimentation is fun! And delicious.

Peanut Butter Cookies

CONFESSION TIME. I forgot 2 fundamental aspects of this recipe because I was too busy watching Love Island. The chocolate chips and the rolling in sugar part before you bake them.

Remembered the sugar for these ones...

It is what it is.

I remembered near the end so I rolled a few in sugar, and I scattered sugar over the hot-from-the-oven ones.

Really, it’s just a personal preference because they’re great both with and without. They have that really satisfying texture with the crinkly top and I have found my new favourite cookie recipe! Next time I’ll be less terrible and try them with chocolate chips too, but the important thing is the base cookie recipe which is PERFECT.

Makes about 16-18 cookies

Choc Chip Shortbread

Shortbread is one of my favourite things to make. Everyone loves shortbread, and it is VERSATILE. It’s not all just those little plain fingers of sugary biscuit you get at Christmas.

You can keep it plain, but dust with cinnamon and vanilla sugar, you can add lemon zest, or orange zest, dip them in chocolate, the options are endless. And that's before you get to the different shapes you could cut them out in!

Little Chick Shortbread - perfect for Easter!

Hearts for Valentine's day..

I love mine with chocolate chips, and it’s my godson’s favourite so I like to make it often! I added a little twist to it again this time, with half of the mix as choc chip and half choc chip with added coconut. Bounty Bar shortbread anyone?!

Zimtsterne – German Cinammon Stars

IT’S BEGINNING TO FEEL A LOT LIKE CHRISTMAS.

Just back from an amazing holiday to Hong Kong and China – they really have taken to Christmas there but it’s just not the same. They have spectacular trees and light displays, and I’ve never heard so many “modern” remixes of Christmas songs. Fabulous but not quite Christmas.

But if you want to look to a country that can really do Christmas, look no further than Germany. This is a traditional German Christmas cookie – they are a big fan of cooking huge batches of cookies in the weeks leading up to Christmas. A nation after my own heart. That means that these stay fresh for up to a month! Another bonus – no gluten or dairy! The cookies are bound with whipped egg white instead of (the more traditional) dairy.

I had a lot of fun making these cookies, they are perfect for a Christmas snack – or to give as presents!

Makes approx. 3 dozen cookies

Sweet & Spooky Gingerbread Skulls

Happy Hallowe’en everyone!

I re-use this gingerbread recipe every couple of weeks. It’s delicious, and it is so easy to work with. Just a dream come true in biscuit form. So I am using it here with just a few flavour tweaks.

I wasn't really going for "spooky"

You don’t have to use skull cutters. If you are more of a free-hand person, then you could cut out circles and then ice those without the “guidelines.” And even if you use cutters which come with cut out indents, you aren’t forced to copy those shapes, you can always get creative and add your own patterns over the top.

I have a slight obsession with holiday baking. And there is something hugely therapeutic about icing buns in an intricate and ridiculously detailed manner. This is how I spend my Sunday evenings and it’s so much fun. Edible hobbies are the best kind.

Shortbread - My Mum's Recipe

Lent is upon us once again. But, everyone knows that you can break your Lent on a Sunday.

And when you break your Lent, you need to do it in style. Forget a few squares of chocolate, you need something amazing.

Enter shortbread.

Shortbread is amazing. Shortbread also eluded me for many years. My mum makes amazing shortbread, and I basically rooted through her recipes until I found it this Christmas. Sharing is fun.

I think they key is the cornflour, it gives it a beautiful “snap” and makes the biscuit deliciously crumbly and crunchy.  The butter is incredible. It’s all working. AND it got the seal of approval from my little godson on Christmas day (he had one in his mouth and one in each hand and was anxiously checking the box to see how many were left).

Apart from being gorgeous and buttery and delicious AND easy to make, its also a fairly versatile recipe. I’ve made it with just plain sugar topping, with lemon zest in the biscuits, and (a personal favourite) with chocolate chips in the dough!

German Biscuits

German biscuits are a staple in Northern Irish bakeries, along with other such classics as snowballs and coconut fingers and fifteens.

They’re a very important part of my childhood, and whenever we would head to a bakery, my sticky little fingers would reach for this sweet round shortbread biscuit,with jam oozing out the sides and barely-set white icing dolloped in the centre.

As I've said, the classic combination is jam and white icing, so the caramel in half of these isn’t strictly “canon” but I had a little bit of caramel left over from another baking project so I thought I’d mix things up. It was delicious, as adding caramel to things normally is. If I had to choose, I think I have to favour tradition and give my thumbs up to the classic jam-filled ones, mainly because I'm a sucker for nostalgia.

You will note that the icing on top is a little.. slapdash. But that’s the way it is meant to be. A beautifully and finely piped topping of icing is great.. but it’s not quite right for these. So dollop away!

Orange and Ginger "Raw-eos"

Well, I had a box of medjool dates left over from my last “raw” cooking kick, so I thought I’d try something that I’ve been thinking about for a little while. While these don’t taste anything like Oreos, they look a bit like them and they’re kind of delicious in their own way. I’m a sugar addict, I’m not going to go all “clean” on you guys and say how these taste even better than the real thing. They don’t, BUT they’re actually pretty damn delicious, and sweetly flavourful.

The biscuit-y bit is actually really similar to those Nakd bars – the only one I like (choc orange). I think the little addition of bits of ginger chocolate gives it a real pop and works well with the orange. I’m a fan.

Raw cooking is something which I’m just dipping my toes into, and adjusting to my own tastes. Feel free to play around with the flavours, or just leave the ginger choc/zest out entirely. The other great thing about these is that you don’t need the filling, you could easily roll them a bit thicker (like an inch) and just eat them as-is. Versatile and yummy!