Baking - Triple Chocolate Cookies

Since finishing for the summer I have revisited my love of baking, indulgently perusing recipe book pages and baking treats for my children.  After a morning of gloss painting the staircase I decided to make a batch of cookies.  For the past couple of years Andy and I have been using a favourite recipe taken from The Australian Women's Weekly Chocolate cookbook.  So having teased some of you earlier on Instagram with photos of my baking I thought I would share the recipe with you.

Ingredients
125g butter, softened
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
250g light muscavado sugar or soft brown sugar
1 egg
150g plain flour
35g self raising flour
1tsp bicarbonate of soda
35g cocoa
85g raisins
200g of chocolate, chopped coarsely (you can use dark, milk or white all three!)

1. Preheat oven to 180C / 160C fan oven.
2. Lightly grease two baking sheets.
3. Beat together the butter, sugar, vanilla extract and egg until smooth.
4. Stir in the flours, cocoa and bicarb.
5. Stir in the raisins and chocolate.
6. Put dessert spoonfuls of mixture on a baking sheet. Leave a space as they do spread out.  Also you can make smaller cookies by using a teaspoon or huge cookies using a tablespoon!
7. Bake for 10 mins. Leave for 5 mins after getting out of the oven then transfer onto a cooling rack.
8. Enjoy!

I am going to play with flavours over the next few weeks, but using the basic recipe.  Perhaps orange and cranberry, chocolate and ginger, tropical fruit (using dried pineapple, mango and papaya), lemon and raspberry.

Have fun baking and until next time take care.
Zoe
xo

Bank Holiday Fun as a Morrisons Mum

I am sure many of you that follow me on Twitter and Instagram have seen me sharing various foodie images this weekend.  Well I have busy taking part in some bank holiday fun with Morrisons and BritMums.  For many years I have been a big fan of online supermarket shopping, saving me time and I am sure money.  So I was actually quite excited at the prospect of heading to a supermarket for more than a few midweek stock up items.  I have to admit I had never been to Morrisons, partly due to the fact that we don't have one in close vicinity to our house.  So off we headed, armed with a shopping list.

The Ipswich store is tucked away and on  a Saturday afternoon wasn't nearly as busy as some other supermarkets.  The store was inviting, with the promise of savings and good value in the form of overhead banners and bright signs above shelves of fresh produce.  The market place feel was fun and meant we could get most of the things we needed before heading into the aisles.  I actually liked this and enjoyed choosing a selection of fresh fruit, veggies, cold meats, cheese and various breads without clashing trolleys in squashed aisles.  So far so good!  Continuing to fill the trolley as we headed up the uncluttered aisles we were pleasantly surprised at the prices.  Whilst some were special offers for that week others were part of the new long term price reductions Morrisons introduced last week. With rump steak half price per kilo, we had a lovely treat as part of a Tex Mex dinner we had planned and breaded fresh cod fillets at only £2 for four, I was welcome of the reduction with five always hungry children to feed. Fresh croissants for breakfast on Sunday were another delicious treat, at 5 for £1.20 it  would be silly not to!  

So will I be switching allegiance to Morrisons?  Maybe, if they start home delivery.  The products were fresh, well presented, with plenty of choice.  Above all the staff were all very helpful and friendly, so this rare trip to a supermarket on a Saturday afternoon was actually an enjoyable and budget friendly experience.  

Are you a creature of habit when it comes to doing your weekly shop? Or are you a bargain hunter, happy to show no loyalty to a particular supermarket chain?

Until next time, take care.
Zoe
xo

This is a sponsored post, in conjunction with Morrisons.