Cookies

I love baking. I find it a form of therapy. If I’m stressed or annoyed, I bake a cake. I think there's something about the smell of baking that instantly lifts the mood and, of course, eating it's always good too :)

My speciality is chocolate and coconut cookies. They take around 5 minutes to prepare and 10-15 to bake. Perfect pick-me-up. Peanut butter ones are good too!

All you need for an easy batch of cookies is:

4oz Butter
4oz Sugar
An Egg
Plain & Self-Raising Flour
Flavouring

1. Put butter and sugar in a bowl and microwave until soft/slightly melted. 
2. Pop into a bowl and beat with a wooden spoon to mix it all together. 
3. Add the yolk of the egg and mix. 
4. Add flavouring (i.e. desiccated coconut + cocoa powder, peanut butter, vanilla etc.) 
5. Stir well. 
6. Keep adding a roughly equal mix of plain and self-raising flour until the mixture is stiff like Play-Doh, then roll into balls and flatten into biscuit shapes. 

Bake in a medium oven (about gas mark 4-5) until they smell and look cooked. They shouldn't be too soft to the touch, but they don't need to be solid either as they will solidify when you leave them to cool (if you can leave them that long ;) ).

I owe most of my baking skills to my favourite cookbook, which I found in Australia four years ago: The Golden Wattle.