A love affair with chocolate chip cookies

When I was a kid, relatives visiting from America only meant one thing: Walkers cookies! I can still recall how I used to savour every bite; not too soft or too crunchy. It was just perfect.

This was how my love affair with cookies began and my favourite by far are chocolate chip cookies.

The thing is, sometimes I am just too lazy to cook so I try to find recipes which require the least number of ingredients. Hence when I came across this recipe which requires only five main ingredients, I simply had to try it out.

The result: time saved, craving satisfied. What more could one ask for?



Ingredients:

Softened butter – 1 cup

Dark brown sugar – 1 cup

Egg – 1

Vanilla – 1 tbsp (optional)

Baking powder – 1 tsp (optional)

Salt – ½ tsp (recommended but optional)

Flour – 1 cup plus 2 tbsp (preferably all-purpose)

Chocolate Chips – 1 cup (I used Hershey’s)



Method:

1. Preheat oven to 180°C

2. In a large bowl, cream together the butter and brown sugar with a hand mixer. Add in the egg and mix until incorporated. At this point you may add the optional ingredients (vanilla, baking powder and salt). Mix well.

3. Then gently fold in the flour and chocolate chips until just combined. Mixing too much will create tough and dry cookies.

4. Drop rounded mounds of dough (about two tbsps. each) on ungreased cookie sheets. Use an ice cream scoop if you have one. Flatten the dough mounds slightly before baking.

5. Bake at 180°C until it has turned light brown on the edges and the centre still looks undercooked – for about nine minutes. Cool them on a rack for 10 minutes or so.

6. You can store them in an airtight container for at least two weeks.



Happy munching!

All photos: Arhama Siddiqa