Raspberry and White Chocolate Cookies

Here's a little recipe I got from my friend Annette - I've no idea where she got it from originally, but they are very scrummy and well worth a bake.

In a large bowl cream together::

225g softened unsalted butter

225g caster sugar

Stir in:

170g condensed milk

Sift in:

350g self-raising flour

Work the mix into a soft dough with your hands.

Mix in:

150g white chocolate chips

Take a handful of dough and flaten with your fingers.

Place 2-3 raspberries (from 175g in total) in the centre of the cookie and fold over the sides of the dough to encase the raspberries. 

[However ~ it was at this point that it all went wrong - my raspberries were rather large, and having attempted this, which just broke through the cookie dough and consequently irrepairable, I got frustrated. So I chucked all 175g of the rapsberries into the mixture and just rolled them out into balls and flattened into cookie size pieces.My hands were a mess with a capital M - so make sure you have access to some warm soapy water before you start, or everything you touch will get into a right gloopy state! The cookie however will look just fine.

Now back to the recipe ~ ]

Repeat with the remaining dough

Place the cookies on parchment lined baking trays, spacing well apart

Bake Gas 4 for 15-18 mins until golden brown at the edges, but still a little soft.

Leave to cool before removing onto a wire rack to cool.

Aparently the dough will keep for up to a month in the freezer - but without the raspberries in it. I'd never know, they wouldn't last that long.

Nut and White Chocolate Cookies

It's nearly time for my annual camping trip, which always involves baking loads of muffins the day before I go, but this year I decided to have a go at some cookies, so if you want to bake cookies that look like beefburgers try these ones ~

Beat together:

125g butter

2 teaspoons vanilla essence

1 cup brown sugar (firmly packed)

1 egg

Sift in:

1 cup plain flour

half cup self-raising flour

Stir in:

1 cup chopped mixed nuts (150g) (I used mixed but Macadamia nuts were recommended if you have any)

1 cup shredded coconut

three quarter cup rolled oats

200g white chocolate, chopped

Roll into balls and flatten slightly. 

Place on a greased baking tray.

Bake Gas 5 for 12 mins.

Makes about16 the size I did them.

Chocolate Chip Cookies

In my quest to keep everyone happy this weekend, and realising I needed to keep the remaining sour cream for the fajitas rather than putting it into a batch of Chocolate Muffins, I had to come up with something else that was chocolatey and sweet. So I dug out a cookie recipe but, naturally, I had to amend it as I didn't have all the right ingredients. 
They turned out just fine though according to Tim, my chocolate-connoiseur of a son-in-law, he loved them.

Beat together: (it suggested using an electric mixer, but i just did it by hand)

125g butter

half cup caster sugar

third cup demerara sugar (should have been brown)

1 egg

Stir in:

one and three quarters cup (sifted) self-raising flour

200g choc chips (the recipe was for 95g choc chips and three quarters cup chopped glace cherries - but Tim's not a fan of cherries! The things you do for your son-in-law)

Dollop a heaped teaspoon onto a greased baking tray, 3cm apart *

Bake Gas 4 

For 12 mins. until golden brown

Cool on trays

* With my first batch I followed the instructions, but I was on the phone when the timer went off, and someone else decided they weren't cooked enough and left them longer in the oven. The remaining mixture got rolled up into a cookie width sized sausage in a zip-lock bag and stored in the fridge. Tonight I got it back out and sliced the cookie dough into biscuit sized chunks and baked again. They cooked beautifully in 12 mins. Next time I'll roll them up and chill them for a while before baking.

P.S.The cookie dough was lovely raw, and would go well in vanilla ice cream!!

Oat and Banana COOKIES - yes cookies!

Finally, my kids will say, she baked something other than muffins!!
I have rarely ever baked cookies, but I was standing in the kitchen making a picnic (to celebrate making a start on Holly and Tim's new house today), when I saw two less than appetizing bananas lurking in the fruit bowl. I already have enough muffins, so for once I dug out a cook book and found a recipe to use them up. They took no time at all, and being as they were so successful, I thought I'd share the recipe with you all here. It's from an 'Australian's women's weekly' cookbook, called 'Biscuits and Slices', but naturally, I didn't have all the right ingredients, so I have adapted it.
Here's what I did:

In a large bowl
sift in 1and a half cups of plain flour
with half a teaspoon of bicarbonate of soda.
add 1 cup of oats
and half a cup of demerera sugar
and mix together.
Stir in 1 cup of mashed banana (make sure it gets through all the mixture and doesn't just clog into one place!)

In a small bowl mix together
125g melted butter
2 tablespoons of golden syrup
and 1 lightly beaten egg.

Add the wet to the dry and mix together.

Use a spoon (I tried to mould them in my hands, like the meatballs I made last night - but this instantly proved to be a moment of madness, which took some cleaning up!!) to dollop them onto a lightly greased baking tray. leaving 4cm between each one.

Bake on Gas 5 for 12 mins.

Don't move them immediately, but after a few minutes move them from the tray to a cooling rack. If you move them too quickly they'll fall apart.The book said it would make about 45. I made 16!! Not sure how tiny theirs were, but I got about 9 on a baking tray and did the baking in 2 batches so that I could use the middle of the oven each time.
What a shame, they didn't all fit in the tin - I suppose I'd better eat it, it would seem silly to make more washing up and find a bigger tin :)