Baking keeps me sane

Lots of cake making has gone on over the past few days, I've made cakes for people to take up to Scotland with them, and then a cake so Lex wouldn't get jealous. Today saw me making cookies instead. I'll fully admit to stealing the recipe from this wonderful site but I did make a few changes to it which I think makes it much nicer!

Chocolate Chip Cookies
Yields approx 17.
300g plain (all-purpose) flour

½ teaspoon bicarbonate of soda (baking soda)
1 teaspoon fine salt

170g unsalted butter, melted and cooled slightly

215g light brown sugar

120g granulated white sugar

1 tablespoon vanilla extract

1 large egg

1 large egg yolk

300g milk chocolate chips

Sift together flour, bicarbonate of soda and salt. Set aside.
Stir together melted butter, brown sugar, sugar and vanilla. Add egg, then the yolk. Beat well to ensure that egg is evenly distributed. Stir in dry ingredients, then fold in chocolate chips until incorporated. It will look as if there are too many chocolate chips but the dough will be able to hold them all. Cover with clingfilm and chill dough until firm. At least 30 minutes.
Preheat the oven to 190C/Gas Mark 5.
Bake in preheated oven for approximately 10-12 minutes or only until the edges begin to turn golden. (They'll look and feel underdone but they're ready.) Cool on the sheet for 1 minute and remove with a wide spatula to a cooling rack. Cool thoroughly and enjoy!

Now I leave out the salt, as I don't find I miss it when it's not there, and this way I can think I'm being healthy! I also don't use that much Vanilla, just a capful of the proper stuff (not yucky essence, it has to extract) is plenty for me. I'm also not a choc chip fan. After all one can never have too much chocolate, so silly little chips just aren't satisfactory. I need choc chunks! My personal method for this is to shove the chocolate in a carrier bag and hit away with a rolling pin until I think the chunks are the right size (usually about half a square). To shape the dough I actually roll a big sausage in cling film, and then stick it in the freezer so it goes really solid, if I'm not impatient and I have a sharp knife I actually just slice this roll up. Today I wasn't, but you can still try to cut a disk a centimeter wide, then roll the squashed disc in to a ball, and plonk it on the baking sheet.

et Voila, how to keep one cookie monster (aka Lex) happy!