I have Moved!

I have moved my blog to another location!

Please visit me at http://www.chopped-tomatoes.com

Jue’s Chocolate De-Stress Cookies

My friend Jue can live on sugary foods alone. She is constantly munching away at either a chocolate bar, a muffin, some apple pie! I enjoy her visits and our ‘girly nights’; I’m not a fan of sweet things but it is so satisfying to watch her face light up when I take goodies out of the oven! She has been working really hard at university (bless her shes been stressed out lately with her Masters), I thought she needed a nice ‘fix’. I know she loves white chocolate, so I made her a batch of these yummy chewy treats!  

Cookies are sinfully high in sugar and fat; I use creme fraiche or low fat yoghurt instead of all butter, it hardly alters the taste and gives you a lovely chewy texture on the inside. This is my basic cookie recipe, you can add chocolate chips, raisins, nuts…whatever you fancy!

Makes about 2 dozen

50g butter

50g low fat yoghurt or creme fraiche

50g sugar

100g dark brown sugar (to give that ‘caramel’ flavour)

1 egg

1 tsp vanilla essence (or whatever you like)

170g plain flour

1/2 tsp baking powder

pinch of salt

170g white chocolate chips

55g ground nuts (I used peanuts but you can use almonds, walnuts etc)

1. Preheat the oven to 180°C/gas mark 4, and lightly grease 2 baking sheets

2. Cream the butter yoghurt/creme fraiche, and the two sugars until light and fluffy (it takes about ten minutes with an electric whisk)

3. Lightly beat the egg and vanilla in a cup, then gradually beat them into the butter mixture. Try to add a few teaspoons at a time because I’ve had BAD experiences with my dough separating! (when it resembles scrambled eggs)

4. Add the flour, baking powder, salt and STIR. Don’t use the whisk at this point you don’t want to knock all the air out of the dough. Gently ’swirl’ the dry ingredients in with a metal spoon.

5. Add the chocolate chips and ground nuts last, and mix to combine.

6. Place heaped teaspoonfuls of the dough about 5cm/2in apart on the prepared sheets. Bake until the edges are only slightly coloured for 10-15 minutes. Let them cool for 2 minutes before transferring them onto a rack to cool completely.

A Note to the Four Sisters: If you’re going to make this recipe please follow the instructions, especially the part about cooking time (I know of at least one overcooks everything). If you leave the cookies in the oven too long they will become hard, brittle, and the chocolate will burn.

Serve with milk.

Knitting Basics III – How to Purl

I see purling as ‘backwards knitting’; instead of having the yarn behind the work, you have it in front. Here are the step-by-step instructions with pictures so you can get the general idea…

Read the ‘Casting On’ post for preparing the first row, and the ‘How to Knit’ post on information on how to hold the yarn.

PURL STITCH

1. With the yarn at the front of the work insert the right-hand needle, as shown below, through the front of the first stitch on the left-hand needle.

   

2. Wind the yarn from right to left over the point of the right-hand needle.

   

3. Draw a loop through onto the right-hand needle, and slip the original stitch off the left-hand needle.

   

To purl an entire row, repeat steps 1-3 until all the stitches are transferred to the right-hand needle. Turn the work, transferring the needle with stitches back to your left hand, and work the next row exactly the same! Enjoy!