Chocolate chip cookies

The classic biscuit, and particularly appealing when made to oversized and packed with extra chocolate (in no-nonsense XL chunks) and pecans.

I always used to make chocolate chip cookies from a recipe that creamed the sugar and butter together, and the result was more spongy. This recipe is adapted from one by Mr Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall (a cook probably better associated with savoury dishes, notably ones based on home-reared or wild meats), which uses melted butter and a blend of two sugars. The result is a fairly dense, chewy and very satisfying biscuit.

This particularly batch was split in two, one half of the mixture used to make white chocolate and pecan, the other half to make dark chocolate and pecan (with added cocoa, for that “double chocolate” thang). Perfect with a cuppa as a reward after a few hours digging our heavy-duty, damp, sodding clodding clay soil vegetable beds.

As for the actual recipe, here it is. Basically from a recipe by Fearnley_Whittingstall and Fizz Carr, but with extra indulgence, and doubled, so you can fill a good-sized tin. No messing about.

100g good dark chocolate (ie, highest cocoa mass content you can find – 70% plus ideally), roughly chopped

100g good white chocolate, roughly chopped

100g pecan nuts (or whichever you favour, or have to hand), roughly chopped

2 T cocoa

250g butter

180g caster sugar (or granulated- both seem to work pretty well)

120g soft brown sugar (I’ve knocked back the sugar a bit – white chocolate can be sickly sweet, so don’t really need to over-do it)

2 eggs (large, free range)

4 tsp vanilla extract (the proper stuff, none of your “Vanilla flavouring” nonsense)

300g plain flour

1 tsp baking powder

pinch of salt

1 Set your oven at 190c (bit less if it’s fan) / Gas 5.

2 Grease some baking sheets

3 Melt the butter in a pan then combine it in a large mixing bowl with the two sugars.

4 Beat in the eggs and vanilla.

5 Sift in the flour, baking powder and salt.

6 Divide the mixture into two in separate bowls.

7 Add half the pecans and the white chocolate to one mixture and blend.

8 Add the other half of the nuts and the dark chocolate to the other mixture, sift in the 2 tablespoons of cocoa and blend. The cocoa will stiffen the mixture up a bit so you can add a tablespoon or so of milk.

9 Drop heaped desertspoonfuls onto the baking sheets, well separated.

10 Cook each batch for 8-10 mins.

11 Leave on the tray for a few minutes to harden, then cool on a rack.