Classic Chocolate Chip Cookie

Everybody has a go-to chocolate chip cookie recipe, the one they can whip up in 10 minutes from memory and is the favourite snack for a rainy Sunday afternoon with the family, or even alone with milk and a box-set of DVDs.

Here's mine:

• 2 1/4 cup all-purpose flour
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 cup butter (room temperature)
• 1 1/2 cup brown sugar (tightly packed)
• 2 eggs
• 2 tsp vanilla (that's what the recipe says, but I usually pour in triple the amount stated)
• 2 cups chocolate chips

1. Preheat oven to 170 degrees Celsius
2. In a medium bowl, mix flour, baking soda and salt. Set it aside.
3. In a bigger bowl, beat butter and sugar until well blended (the aim is to get a smooth consistency, where you can hardly trace the sugar grains)
4. Beat in eggs and vanilla (be liberal with your vanilla, don't you just love the smell?)
5. Optional step: add a splash of milk to the mix
6. Add the flour mixture in 2 additions (this is so you don't clog up your mixer)
7. Stir in the chocolate chips
8. Using a mini ice-cream scoop or a spoon (I usually use two teaspoons) drop the dough onto baking tray (lined with parchment paper) in the size of your choice
9. Bake for 10 minutes, or until it's a light golden brown around the edges but still slightly soft when you poke it with a finger in the middle
10. Leave to cool on a wire rack, watch yourself cos these will burn your tongue if you don't wait!

Yield: depending on the sizes you make. I've made 100 per batch of small cookies, about an inch in diameter, whereas about 50 larger, softer cookies (yum!)

You can also choose to mix in other fillings. I've substituted the chocolate chips with butterscotch morsels, dried blackcurrants, raisins, etc. Just have fun with these, they're happy cookies and trust me, people can definitely taste when cookies were baked by a happy person ;)

xx NA