Milk Chocolate and Hazelnut Cookies

Well, sorry for being so unfaithful to you blog land but other things were on my mind and I was just totally stumped for ideas, but here I am back and fresh with ideas!

So today I decided to bake some cookies, using the recipe from Claudia Winkleman's Great Comic Relief Bake-off cookies. The only problem being that I didn't have all the chocolate that was required (what is my life coming to)! So had to substitute 450g of dark chocolate for that of Cadburys Whole Nut a decision that I actually am semi glad of as it did make the cookies a bit different but I don't think Milk chocolate works all that well in them as it isn't strong enough. But, my worst troubles were still to come... After following all the steps using the right amount of everything I began spooning the mixture onto my prepared trays, it did cross my mind that the mixture was very runny (just like brownie mix to be more precise?!) this not only meant that it was hard to make the cookies the same size but also when I was cooking them they didn't need anywhere near the time suggested so they stuck to the tray! Something was wrong... before lobbing in more flour I checked the episode on you-tube and sure enough Claudia's cookies looked nothing like my odd runny wafer thin biscuits. The first (tester tray) was binned and I decided to edit the mix, I added a shed load of flour (no joke, loads was needed) and then spooned heaps of the new mix onto a couple of trays and they went into the oven. The new thicker mixture seriously improved the cookies, they rose up and turned into beautiful (rather big) golden cookies, I left them to cool then dipped them half into melted milk chocolate; they are delicious! So, what started out as a terrible failure turned out to be a great success  xx

Much love Alex-Rose xxx

Ps. Anyone got any ideas as to why mine (before changing them) were so runny and unlike hers!? Could it have anything to do with the change in chocolate as that was the only thing that I change, seems unlikely, but I can't think of anything else? xx


Chocolate and Hazelnut Cookies From Claudia Winkleman

Ingredients:

• 100g unsalted butter
• 450g dark chocolate, chopped
• 4 free-range eggs
• 340g soft brown sugar
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 170g plain flour
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 450g milk chocolate chips
• 100g (ish) Self-raising flour
• 200g Milk chocolate (melted)

Method:


Put the butter and chocolate in a bowl over a pan of simmering water and melt, stirring always.
When melted, remove from the heat and set aside to cool slightly. Next place the eggs, sugar and vanilla in a large mixing bowl and whisk with a handheld electric mixer until creamy and combined. Beat in the melted chocolate mixture, then beat in the flour and baking powder. Stir in the chocolate chips (if using), if the mixture is runny add more flour (self-raising) until the mixture comes together at first. Use a tablespoon to heap the mixture on the trays well spaced out. Bake each tray for 10-15 minutes or until the cookies are soft in the centre but set around the edge. Leave to cool then dip half in a bowl of melted milk chocolate, enjoy xxx