The lovely cookies are already a star among my friends

I had originally intended to call this post: “my life project” as I wanted to write about my new cooking project. But then I found out the SHF-IMBB theme was Cookie Swap and my post instantly changed aim. Anyway I’m going to write about both things as they’re related.

I want to open a salon de thé in London. Actually I can’t find a great place where you could stay for hours drinking the best hot chocolate and eating the most delicious cookies on earth while reading the latest cookbooks.
Here is my last life achievement. It rose after my boyfriend and I, walking around in Chelsea, had a discussion about my passion: cooking. And there he suggested I should open a kind of salon de thé (i.e. tea room). At that precise moment I wondered why I had never thought about it before. It seems so ideal for me; I’m conscious it’s going to be hard to fight against Starbucks and Café Nero and that the whole thing is not going to be easy: wake up a 5am to bake thousands of muffins, cookies, pancakes… but this is what I want to do and I hope I’ll be able to. Then i could publish my books and bake and cook as much as I want.

In that wish I’m trying to find the best recipes I can manage to produce for things such as cookies, muffins, sandwiches…
So you’ll have to cope with all these experimentations.
Actually, last week-end I spent 2 days experimenting with flour, eggs, sugars, butter and chocolate chips and finally managed to make the most delicious chewy chocolate chip cookies I have ever had.
You understand, now, why this post has become part of SHF-IMBB event.

Just a short note: I sometimes have french reflex – when I read (a little too fast maybe) the theme was Cookie Swap, I instantly thought of cookies as what, we, French call cookie : the American TRUE cookie. Not your usual cookie that we call biscuit. So I’m sorry not to be very creative with this recipe. Hope you’ll understand.

When I create a recipe I always think in cups as it’s easier for me to realize how much it does of each ingredient. Sadly, I didn’t have my scale when I made these (because I was home for the week end) and then I can’t give you the metric measures. Just in case : 1 cup = 250ml.

Chewy toffee and milk chocolate chip cookies
makes 26 large cookies

One bite of these and you’ll go to heaven. These are for me the perfect cookies: chewy and tasty. The toffee is not actual toffee but the deliciously browned white chocolate.
I advise you to eat them straight from the oven or cold as I think they develop a nice flavour while cooling. Actually I didn’t like them warm.
To keep them chewy and moist, I wrap them by 6 (a cooking batch) in foil, as soon as they’re out of the oven.
If you’re not convinced yet, I should let you know that I had taken 6 of these with me in the train (back home – 6 hours) with the intention to keep them for the week, but I did eat them.

4½ cups flour (I used Italian tipo 00)
3 tsp baking powder
1/8 tsp salt

200g melted butter
1½ cups caster sugar
1 cup light brown sugar
½ cup light muscovado sugar
3 eggs
seeds from 1 vanilla pod

2 cups milk chocolate buttons
½ cup white chocolate buttons
Preheat the oven to 160°C.
Line a baking sheet with baking parchment.

In a bowl, mix the flour, baking powder and salt. Set apart.
In a large bowl, mix the butter and sugars, then beat in the eggs one at a time. Add the vanilla seeds and mix well.

Pour the flour over the egg mixture and mix until you’ve got a smooth dough.

Fold in the chocolate buttons.

Form balls (¼ cup approx.) of dough and press them slightly between you hands. Place on the lined baking sheet (I put 6 disks on one baking sheet).
Bake for 15 minutes, until the edges are very lightly coloured. And repeat until you’ve used all the dough.
Cool for 5 minutes on a wire rack and enjoy!

Posted by fanny who loves to forget labeling posts