Baking Butter Biscuits

A bit of alliteration and some delicious basic biscuits are the result!

Butter Biscuits
(makes 30)
Ingredients:
125g butter, softened (I used salted butter to cut down on the sweetness of the biscuit)
1/2 cup caster sugar
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1 egg, at room temperature
2 cups plain flour
1 tsp baking powder
1 tbsp milk

Method:
Preheat oven to 180C. Line two baking trays with baking parchment/paper.

Using a food processor or electric mixer, beat butter, sugar and vanilla until pale and creamy. Add egg and mix well until combined.

Sift flour and baking powder over butter mixture. Add milk and stir/mix until just combined.

Using 2 teaspoons of dough at a time, roll dough into balls. Place on lined baking trays. Using a lightly floured fork, flatten biscuits slightly (remember to allow room for spreading).

Bake for 12 - 15 minutes, swapping trays over in the oven after 10 minutes, or until light golden. Allow to cool on trays for 5 minutes. Transfer to wire racks to cool completely. Dust with icing sugar. Biscuits will keep up to a week in an airtight container.

Mint Chocolate Chip Cookies

So here's the story behind these cookies.... my youngest son is doing a project at school where they have to work in groups to make and sell cookies. He and his group have been working hard on market research, planning, budgeting and advertising.

For weeks now, he and I have been in deep discussions about chocolate chip cookies; whether he should crush up left over Easter eggs (which is what I've been doing) or use packaged chocolate chips, what kind of chocolate chips he should use (milk, white or dark), whether he should use cocoa or real chocolate in the dough. Tonight, at the last minute, he tells me that his group has decided that the cookies should be mint chocolate chip now. Oh, and he needs the recipe by tomorrow. He bats his eyes at me, smiles and then skips off to bed, leaving me with my laptop on my lap desperately scouring every foodie site I can find for a good recipe for mint chocolate chip cookies.

Finally, it occurs to me I could just modify my chocolate chip recipe fairly simply (I'm tired... it was a late night last night and an early morning this morning... and now my brain's not working so well). So here's the (rather delicious) result. This recipe makes around 28 cookies (depending on how big you make them).

Mint Chocolate Chip Cookies
Ingredients:

• 125g unsalted butter (softened)
• 180g soft brown sugar
• 2 eggs
• 1 tsp peppermint essence
• 150g plain flour
• 100g self-raising flour
• 40g cocoa powder
• 1/2 tsp bicarbonate of soda (baking soda)
• pinch salt (not iodised salt)
• 150g chocolate chips (dark, milk or white)

Method:

Preheat the oven to 150C. Line two baking trays with baking paper.

Beat the butter and sugar on high speed for 5 minutes until pale and creamy (I do the whole of this step in the food processor). Add the eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Add the peppermint essence, then sift in the flours, cocoa, bicarb. soda and salt. Mix on low speed until combined. Transfer dough to bowl, add chocolate chips and stir well.

Wash your hands, but don't dry them, then roll the mixture into 50g balls (about the size of a golf ball or a teaspoon full of the dough) and place on the prepared trays. Press the dough balls down gently to flatten a little.

Bake the cookies for 15 - 18 minutes, until lightly golden and slightly firm to the touch.

Cool on trays for 5 minutes, then cool thoroughly on wire rack. Store in airtight container (will last up to a week).

Tips:

1. Keeping your hands wet when you're rolling the cookie dough stops the dough from sticking to your hands and keeps it in a nice round ball.
2. You can store this dough in the freezer by rolling it into a cylinder shape and covering with plastic wrap (Glad wrap/Cling wrap). The cookies can be cut off the roll and baked straight from the freezer. Just add 3 - 5 minutes to the cooking time.
3. Cookie dough can be frozen for up to 1 month before needed.