6 days! SIX days to Christmas, eeeeep. And we all know that the most important thing to do on Christmas eve before you go to sleep is to leave out cookies/biscuits and some milk for Santa. Now I have a few options under my belt for good cookies, but I wanted something different this year- something new.

So when the lovely Irish food bloggers suggested a cookie swap, I signed up without a second thought. Cookies, you say? Yes. A cookie swap you say? Absolutely, how very exciting, said I. And so to it. The lovely Susie from http://www.sausageandpeppers.org/ supplied me with a cookie recipe from one of my favourite cookbook authors- Mr. David Lebovitz. I was only delighted, as I love love love his recipes, and have one of his cookbooks in my large large large collection (soon to be larger, thanks Santa!). So I set to it last night, making cookie dough like there was no tomorrow, and using my new chocolate button supply (yummy yummy yums). These are lovely, really good and chewy and just a great portion of sugar laden loveliness. Try them out…

Salted Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies — **perfect with coffee!
By David Lebovitz (with slight tweaking from me)

Makes two dozen cookies, depending on your preference and dough-scooping tendencies (I get approximately 30+)

What you’ll need:

4 ounces (8 tablespoons or 115g) salted butter, at room temperature
2/3 cup packed (110g) dark or light brown sugar
1/2 cup (100g) granulated raw sugar
1 large egg, at room temperature
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 1/3 cup (180g) wholemeal flour (Er, here I had to differ, as my wholemeal was all gone 😦 I used cream)
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon flaky sea salt
2 bars good quality dark or semisweet chocolate, roughly chopped (original recipes calls for 1 1/3 cups worth, which I found to be too much — and mine still come out super chocolatey)
A handful of walnuts roughly chopped

Method:

1. In the bowl of a stand mixer or by hand, cream together the butter & sugars.

2. Beat in the egg and the vanilla.

3. In a small bowl, whisk together flour, baking soda and salt.

4. Stir the flour mixture into the beaten butter until just combined, then mix in the chopped chocolate (including any chocolate dust) and the chopped nuts.

5. Cover and chill the batter until firm. (Best left overnight!)

6. When ready to bake, preheat the oven to 350ºF / 180ºC / Gas mark 4. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper.

7. Form cookie dough into rounds about the size of a large unshelled walnut (or a well rounded teaspoon). Place the mounds evenly spaced apart on the baking sheets and press down the tops to flatten them a little. (Or not! Doesn’t really matter, I learned.)

8. Bake for 10 minutes, rotating the baking sheet midway during baking, until the cookies look about set, but are not yet browned.

9. Remove from the oven and quickly tap the top of each with a spatula, then return to the oven for 2 to 5 more minutes, depending on your over, until the tops of the cookies are light golden brown.

10. Remove from oven and let cookies cool completely. Picking them up too early can cause the very chocolatey bottoms of these cookies to break apart. I leave them to cool for a long, long time. (But always eat one right away to test!)

Storage: The cookies can be stored at room temperature for up to five days in an airtight container. The dough can be refrigerated for up to one week or frozen for one or two months.

See if they last more than two days before being inhaled!

As I said, these are really lovely, so give them a try, I guarantee you’ll enjoy them. And don’t forget to leave some out for Santa (I always leave a few extra out for Mrs. Clause too). Once again, thanks to Susie at http://www.sausageandpeppers.org for the recipe, I hope she enjoyed my recipe to her just as much!