Double chocolate and Vanilla & Butterscotch cookies

Basic cookie recipe
Makes 24 medium - large cookies

8oz plain white flour
8oz plain wholemeal flour
1oz baking powder
8oz butter
8oz sugar
1 tsp vanilla essence
2 fl oz (or just over) milk

Preheat the oven to Gas mark 4 (180 C)

 Place the flour and baking powder (unsifted ... it really doesn't need it!) and butter in a large mixing bowl. Rub together with fingertips until it resembles breadcrumbs then add the sugar, vanilla essence and milk. Mix together until the ingredients come together as a dough - you may need a drop more milk.

Bring the dough together into a ball and cut in half. Divide each half into four and each piece then into three. Flatten each piece onto a lined baking tray and bake for around 15 minutes until golden brown. Don't overcook them as they're better slightly soft and chewy.
Leave to cool on a rack.
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For double chocolate cookies, add 1 1/2 tablespoons cocoa powder to the mixture and omit the vanilla. You may need a splash more milk. I also added half a pack of butterscotch pieces.

For Vanilla & Butterscotch cookies, simply add a packet of vanilla fudge pieces and a packet of tiny butterscotch pieces (from the supermarket).

Needless to say, they're delicious and, even though I made enough to last the week for lunch boxes and school snacks, they're going down super fast! Even A is taking a big handful at a time!!

Socks :~)

 You can *never* have too many socks! The ones above were crocheted and really quick and easy to do from a pattern kindly sent to me by a member of a friendly little forum I visit.

 The sock above and below is knitted and vastly slower but I love it so far ... So far, I have only ever knitted one other sock in my life and was so relieved to get to the end of it that I couldn't face the second one! This time, I'm just plodding, plodding, plodding on ... I *have* to complete the pair this time!

 After all that, biscuits are in order ... Anzac biscuits. I'll post the recipe when I have a minute to dig it out  :~)

Gingernuts

Years ago, I used to bake dozens of Gingernuts every few weeks. It must have been the perfect recipe because they turned out brilliantly ... buttery, with just the right amount of chewiness and with that rough, craggy look on top that they should have. 

I guess we must have all got fed up with Gingernuts at some point because I didn't make them for a while and we've moved house a couple of times since then. Now, of course, I can't remember which book the recipe is in and I've searched and searched all my recipe books but just can't find it. Actually, that was a big part of the motivation for starting this blog - I really wanted somewhere where I could record recipes, etc. that I'm currently using and have something to refer back to.

Gingernuts for lunchboxes and school snacks

This is the recipe I'm currently using which is quite nice but just isn't quite as good as the original:

8oz (225g) plain flour
1/2 tsp bicarbonate of soda
1 tblsp ground ginger
1/2 tsp mixed spice
4oz (125g) butter
6oz (185g) sugar
2 fl oz (60ml, 1/4 cup) water
1 tblsp syrup

Preheat the oven to Gas 4 (180C) and line a couple of baking sheets with baking paper.

Stir together the flour, bicarbonate of soda and spices. In a small pan, heat together the butter, sugar, syrup and water until melted. Stir the liquid in to the dry ingredients until well combined. Place flattened spoonfuls onto the baking sheets and bake until golden for around 15 minutes. Allow to cool and firm up for 10 minutes before transferring to a cooling rack.