Now that Love, Lies and Lemon Pies is well and truly out there, and being read, my hope is that people will be trying the recipes, too. I’ve tried to keep the recipes in the book quite simple, although they do get a little bit harder as the Bake Club gang get more proficient.

Because of limited page space, the recipes printed in the book are also quite short, and do assume a certain amount of baking knowledge. And, of course, I wasn’t able to include pictures.

But I have no such limitations here on the blog! So, I decided to do a Love, Lies and Lemon Pies Bake Through, baking my way through every recipe in the book. I’ll include more detailed instructions, and step by step photos where I can.

I’d love it if anyone else would like to take up this Bake Through challenge with me! Do send me links and photos if you do, please!

First up this week is one of my favourite recipes in the book – Chocolate Chip Cookies!

These are the cookies I make if I need a quick and easy lift to my day, or if we have friends round for tea and biscuits, or just if I feel a desperate need to eat raw cookie dough. (Although, since they do include raw egg, I can’t recommend that you do the same!)

I made them this weekend for a friend’s baby shower, and can report that they went down very well indeed.

Chocolate Chip Cookies

Ingredients:

  • 125g softened unsalted butter (just leave a block out of the fridge to come up to room temperature)
  • 200g light muscovado sugar (full disclosure, I’d run out so used golden caster sugar instead this time)
  • 1 tsp vanilla extract
  • 1 lightly beaten egg (just mix it up in a small bowl with a fork, really)
  • 200g plain flour
  • 1/2 tsp baking powder
  • pinch of salt
  • 200g chocolate chips (I used milk chocolate ones, but you could use dark or white chocolate, or a mix!)

Method:

Preheat the oven to 180°C/fan 160°C/Gas Mark 4

Weigh out the butter and sugar and put in a bowl together, then beat or mix with a wooden spoon or electric mixer until they’re all creamy.

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Mix in the vanilla extract and the egg.

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Sift in the flour, baking powder and salt

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Stir until just combined, then fold through the chocolate chips

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Place spoonfuls of the cookie mixture onto a a baking tray that you’ve covered with greaseproof paper (or foil, if you’ve run out like I had!) and greased by rubbing some butter over it. Make sure to leave room for the cookies to spread as they bake.

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Bake for 15 to 20 minutes (check them after about 12 minutes though, in case your oven runs hot!) until they turn a pale golden colour.

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After a few minutes, move them to a wire rack to cool. Watch them carefully at this point – this is when they taste best and people will try to pinch one. You’ll notice there’s one less cookie on my cooling rack than on my baking tray. I wonder how that happened…

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