Chocolate Chip Cookies

For about 6 years now I've been making giant cookies, but I thought it would be a good idea to make normal sized cookies for once. My recipe is different from my Giant Cookie one, but only slightly. I got this recipe from Nigella Lawson's cookbook Kitchen which was actually the first Nigella book my Mum and I bought. It's massive but filled with great recipes, so not just a waste of space. I change the ingredients list by swapping out the light brown sugar with dark muscovado sugar (like my Giant Cookie recipe) and add in mini marshmallows because I love when the cookies are warm and you bite into them and get this gooey marshmallow pull. In addition to that, the muscovado sugar gives a nice chewy texture. Apart from that, I follow her method and here it is.

I began by melting the butter in a small pot. I then left it to cool for a while which was a perfect opportunity for me to eat my dinner while watching Two Fat Ladies - hilarious cooking show! I remember my Mum watching it when I was a little girl.

After it was cooled, I added it to my sugars and whisked them together until a dark caramel mixture formed. Then it was the case of pouring in vanilla extract and whisking in an egg and an egg yolk. Now Nigella said to put in the eggs "fridge-cold" - not at room temperature like you usually do for baking. I also saved the egg white by putting it into a sandwich bag and stashing it in the freezer. I'll be using that for a future meringue!

After the egg and egg yolk was whisked in, I put in my bicarb and added in my flour, 3 tablespoons at a time, making sure to mix thoroughly after each addition. The mixture will get tougher as it becomes a dough, but the flour will mix in properly. I made this by hand, but if you want to use an electric whisk or standing whisk, go ahead. By the time I had added in all my flour, my mixture changed from a dark caramel colour and consistency to a thick lighter brown, ergo a dough.

Now for the exciting part of the recipe: I folded in all my chocolate chips and mini marshmallows.

I lined my two baking trays with parchment paper and using a 1/4 cup measure, which is 60ml, I scooped out my dough and plopped them onto the tray. Or you can use an ice cream scoop. The weather and the kitchen was so hot, the dough just slid out of the cup with ease. However, if you have a stubborn dough, you can knock on the cup and it'll drop out.

After I had them all lined prettily on the trays, I put them in a pre-heated 170 C oven for 15 minutes. These cookies will expand in the oven, so make sure to leave a considerable gap between each cookie dough before they go in. Do it in small batches if you can. If you're impatient like me, you'll just put them in anyway and pray for the best!

They are ever so good cookies and it's really hard for me to wait for them to cool before shoving them in my mouth. Oh and the smell of cookies will be in your house all day. Forget those diffuser air freshener things - bake some cookies!

Although these look so home-made, I'm actually proud of that. You can take them to a bake sale and be like, 'yeah, I did dat!' Or eat them all. No need to share...

This recipe makes 17 cookies, happy eating.

Ingredients:

• 150g Butter
• 125g Dark Muscovado Sugar
• 100g Caster Sugar
• 2tsp Vanilla Extract
• 1 Egg, fridge-cold
• 1 Egg Yolk, fridge-cold
• 300g Plain Flour
• 1/2tsp Bicarbonate of Soda
• 300g Chocolate Chips
• 30g Mini Marshmallows

- oven to be pre-heated to 170 C