I still remember my very first taste of a real, freshly-baked American cookie, made by a friend’s mother and shared at a picnic on a windy day when I was in my early teens. They were the most deliciously chewy, substantial cookies I’d ever tasted, and I pressed her for the recipe afterwards—a recipe that we wrote down in our family recipe book, and I later copied out into my own notes as an adult.
As a Brit married to an American, I feel a sense of pride in being able to make proper American cookies. My husband can’t eat one without also drinking a glass of milk (a habit deeply ingrained from his childhood, I suppose), and really, is there anything more deeply comforting than cookies and milk? I hope you and your loved ones enjoy this recipe as much as we do!
Ingredients:
– 1/2 cup (4oz) softened butter
– 5 tablespoons white caster sugar
– 5 tablespoons soft/fine brown sugar
– 1 egg
– 1/2 teaspoon vanilla essence (it’s okay to skip this if you don’t have any!)
– 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
– 1/2 teaspoon salt
– 1 cup (8oz) plain flour
– approx. 1+1/2 cups (12oz) dark chocolate chips (or mix up dark, milk, and white depending on your preference)
Optional extra: Add x3 tablespoons of peanut butter to make peanut butter cookies!
Pre-heat the oven to 180C/350F, and prepare a baking tray for the cookies with baking parchment or whatever you like to use.
Sieve the sugar into the softened butter and stir well, until smooth. Add the egg, vanilla, baking powder, and salt, and beat it all together. (Add the peanut butter at this stage, if you’re using it.) When you have a beautifully smooth, whipped texture, add in the flour, and finally the chocolate chips.
Scoop the mixture into rough balls and dollop onto the baking sheet, leaving a few inches of space around them for each cookie to expand and spread out a little. Bake in the pre-heated oven for around 8-10 minutes; the cookies will continue to bake and firm up once they’ve come out of the oven, so you want them to be firm but not too browned when you take them out. Allow the cookies to cool before you try to eat them, if you can! Best served with milk and eaten fresh.
