Challenge your health - update

I had the very ambitious notion a while ago to spend a month dedicated to my health. Well, I stuck to that resolution for about a week before stress took over. Now I'm back at square one, ill and coughing in my bed. And it annoys me so much, because I know there's a pattern to this. Too much stress, too little rest in between and getting chilled. Definitely need to stick to the plan again. So that's the real update: I'm at square one, starting over again. First: get my health back. Second: stay healthy. Hope it works this time.

Love, x

Chocolate chip cookies

It's been a while since I've had the time to bake, so I thought I'd celebrate my return to the oven by making a huge batch of chocolate chip cookies. Using a recipe for cookie dough sandwiches I'd come across on a wonderful blog a while ago (unfortunately I can't remember what it was called) I set to work. Even though it's June already, the sky has been cloudy for days now. These cookies are just the thing to have on your lap whilst reading a great book, in my case 'The Tale of Despereaux' by Kate DiCamillo. They are as big as my hand, crunchy at the edges but soft and chewy in the center. In a word: perfect.

Yields :20 - 24 cookies, depending on the amount of cookie dough you eat before baking them ...

Ingredients:

1 1/2 cup unsalted butter, room temperature

2 cups sugar

4 eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla extract

4 cups all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
2 cups bitter or semi-sweet chocolate chips / chopped chocolate 

Step 1: Cream eggs and sugar. 

Step 2: Add butter, flour, baking soda and vanilla extract. Mix until combined. 

Step 3: Chop your bittersweet chocolate/ open your bag of chocolate chips 

and add them to the dough. Use a fork or spoon to gently stir them into the dough.

Before you can bake the cookies, you need to put them in the refrigerator for an hour. I decided to test this timeline, so I made the dough in two batches (this is why it seems like so little dough in the pictures). The first batch I put in the fridge for 20 minutes, the other for about 40 minutes. I hate to say it, but the second batch turned out much better than the first. They were much softer in the middle, which I personally prefer to a super-crunchy cookie. So apparently there really is a need to chill the dough for such an appallingly long time *sigh*. 

Step 4:  Preheat the oven to 170 degrees celsius. Drop the dough on a baking sheet and flatten it with a spoon so it's about 1/2 cm high.

Let the cookies bake for about 8-10 minutes - watch them closely and take them out the minute they are browned at the edges. Be careful not to overbake them or they'll be too hard and no one wants a rock-cookie, believe me ....

Ta-dah - finished! Let the cookies cool for a few minutes and be careful not to burn your tongue if you don't take my advice (not much of a role model for being patient, myself). 

Have them with a glass of milk and enjoy!

These are the slighly paler second-batch cookies that tasted better though ... 

Off to the couch again and later making banana muffins. 

Love, x

Can't remember ever feeling better than this ...