Baking Sundays: Triple Chocolate Brownie Cookies

The nights are getting colder, the clothes are getting cosier and there's Christmas music playing on the radio. There's no denying that Winter's arrived, and I for one am ready to embrace it in all its frosty glory. Is there anything better than cosying up by the fire, big jumper and fluffy socks on, watching your favourite Christmas movie with a hot chocolate and delicious freshly baked cookie? Well I can't provide you with a fire and you'll have to bring your own socks, but I can promise you that if you keep reading you'll discover an utterly delectable triple chocolate cookie recipe.

 I was going to call these my 'Better than Millie makes' cookies, because well, they are. However when my sister told me they were like brownies in cookie form, I though that described them perfectly. Cooked for just the right amount of time, these cookies are crunchy on the outside and gooey and chewy on the inside- just like any great cookie should be.

This recipe is a variation on a go-to milk chocolate cookie recipe I found a while back. I've playing around with it, trying out different combinations and flavours and this is the one I feel really needs to be shared. You can thank me later. 

You simply cream together your butter and sugars, before adding the egg and vanilla and combining with the flour cocoa powder mix till you get a mould able dough. Though I've added milk and white chocolate chucks (hand cut for than more rustic feel), you can feel free to throw in whatever you like! Smarties, Rolos, toffee- add in a little bit of what you fancy. Cookie's are meant to be fun, so embrace your inner child.

The key to getting these cookies just right is all in the baking time. Too short a time and you'll end up with heated cookie dough on your hands (although lets be honest, that's delicious too), and too long in the oven and they'll be all crunch and no chew. I find 10 minutes to be just the right amount of time. They will continue to cook after you take them out- so don't be alarmed if they look a little soft. Follow my guidelines, but feel free to go out on a limb and take them out a bit earlier/latter- we've all got different tastes in cookies.

Oh, and one last thing, do have some cookie dough before you put them in the oven, but try not to eat it all before it's cooked!

Triple Chocolate Brownie Cookies

Makes 12

125g unsalted butter, softened

125g caster sugar

100g light brown sugar

175g self raising flour

50g cocoa powder

1 egg

1tsp vanilla extract

100g white chocolate chopped

100g milk chocolate chopped

Preheat your oven to 170°C/ 340°F/ Gas Mark 3 and grease and/or line a baking sheet.

In a large bowl, cream together the butter and sugar until it takes on a light fluffy consistency. As you're using brown sugar, the mixture won't reach a pale colour.

Add the egg and vanilla and mix until fully combined.

In a separate bowl, combine the flour and cocoa powder.

Gradually add the flour mixture to the wet ingredients. Stirring until your mixture begins to stiffen and resemble a dough. Once the flour is fully combined add in your chocolate pieces and stir in until evenly distributed. 

Rolls your dough into walnut sized balls and place on your baking sheet. Ensure to leave space between them as they will 'grow' in the oven.

Place in the oven and bake for 10 minutes or for desired length of time.

Remove from the oven and place on a wire rack to cool.

These cookies are delicious eaten cold or warmed up in the microwave for a few seconds to get that chocolate all nicely melted again.

Enjoy!

x

The benefits of being a realist

Listen up my darlings, I'd like to tell you story. 

Do you watch Modern Family? If you're a regular reader of my blog, you'll know I'm a huge fan of the show. Recently, in true spoonie style, I've rewatched the whole show again. From the start of season 1 to the end of season 5, my bofriend and I have watched every episode in preparation for the new series. Through our manic and incessant watching we've come to a great, life changing realisation. We are Claire and Phil. I'm the naggy woman cringing at my partners jokes and he's the kinda guy who might bring an Alpaca home, just because.

Why am I telling you this adorable but seemingly irrelevant tale? Because just like Phil and Claire, Jamie's a dreamer and I'm a realist- or as he'd say, I'm a pessimist.

I'm not. A pessimist. But I will admit I am a realist. It's hard for me to look at things and see the positives if the negatives are so glaringly more likely. I'm not a risk taker and I'd be a terrible gambler. I'm just no good at betting on the little guy, the underdog, the slim chance. I'm not gonna tell you the glass is half empty, but I will be the one to point out that it's no more likely to be half full. And while I hope and pray that one day I will recover fully from this horrible illness, I can never lose sight of the fact that chances are getting slimmer with every passing year. 

I know this may sound depressing, and like I'm not giving myself enough of a chance, but honestly that's not the case. Infact, thinking realistly rather than positively has been my best coping mechanism as of late. Sound crazy and counter productive? I know. But let me explain.

When you suffer from an illness as widely misunderstood as ME, you begin to notice that while people aren't prepred to begin to understand your illness they are exceptionally willing to give advice. Advice on something they know literally nothing about. One of the more common pieces of advice is that if I thought more positively I'd get better. Would you tell an amputee that if they had more positive thoughts their leg would grow back? No. No you wouldn't. So shutup.
Anyway, while positive thinking will not cure ME in any shape or form it does help many suffers avoid depression and get by day-to-day. I am in many ways one of these people. I focus on the little things that make my life great, I surround myself with people I love and I'm forever grateful that I manage a (sober) night out every once in a while. But I believe thinking too positively is a hindrance rather than a force for good- especially for a chronic realist like me.

Last year I met with an ME specialist for the first time. In the letter he sent regarding our meeting he noted that my prognosis wasn't great. The only upside? I had no unrealistic expectations of my recovery. The main thing helping me get better was not an unwavering faith in the cause, but the understanding that I might not.

This goes against everything I'd previously been told. And to be honest I think it's helped more than everything in my recovery.

If I spend my days assuming that I will certainly one day fully recover, I'm constantly striving towards a potentially unachievable goal. Something both highly unsatisfying and demoralising. However if I accept I may never fully recover, the smaller milestones become unfathomable achievements. 
They say that when you lose something you have to go through a period of grieving for what you've lost before you can fully move on with your new life. By having a realist attitude towards my illness, that is what I believe I m doing. I have days where I grieve for the life I've lost. The career and Independence I'll probably never have. But in accepting I may never fully recover, I've also come to appreciate the future I would never otherwise have had. A future that may be slightly less conventional and societally acceptable-but an awesome one all the same.

I'm not saying you should follow my lead. If you've got the mental strength to fully believe you will recover then I envy you, I do, and I wish you the very best. But next time you're not feeling so positive- don't feel guilty. Embrace your inner realist and your new future- you may be surprised by the life you uncover.

I'm gonna leave you with my favourite Modern Family quote, just because it's beautiful.

x

*I'd like to note that I am not downplaying the importance and brilliance of positive thinking, or encouraging negative thinking, at all. I am simply sharing my own beliefs and experience of what works for me.

Baking Sundays: Chocolate Oreo Cupcakes

Oreos and chocolate cake. I challenge you to find a more perfect and utterly delicious pairing. 

When I first read about chocolate Oreo cupcakes, I knew I had to give them a go. With a crunchy Oreo biscuit base, moist chocolaty cake and a creamy Oreo frosting- they sounded delicious. When Jamie and I first tried them, some time back at the beginning of last year, I was on a super strict gluten-free diet. And while I could easily make the cake gluten-free, the same couldn't be said for the Oreos. So no cupcakes for me.

This time round however I'm definitely a lot more lax when it comes to avoiding gluten- I do it when I can, but sometimes (too often these days) I throw caution to the wind and tuck in to a lovely gluten- filled treat. Such is the crazy life I lead. Having said that, I did only manage to get hold of one cupcake before my family demolished them all. Probably for the best.

I've been feeling pretty downright poorly lately. I've had a lot of problems with nausea and I often don't feel like eating. This to me is a completely new, unknown sensation. Even at my sickest, I've normally got a strong appetite and nice bar of chocolate to keep me going. So on Sunday, when I was feeling marginally better, with something of an appetite in tow, I decided it was about time I got baking. And so this super easy chocolate Oreo cupcake recipe was born.

When I've made these cupcakes before, I've stuck to a recipe I found online. However this time, not feeling up to much complicated baking, I devised my own recipe- based on the simplest chocolate cake recipe I know. Unlike my Death by Chocolate cakes, these ones are on the classic 6:3 ratio, making them super easy to make, from start to finish. They use only cocoa powder to give them their chocolaty taste and they only require items you're likely to already have stashed away somewhere.

The Oreo-ness usually comes from both the hidden cookie at the bottom and the crushed up biscuits in the icing. This time however we also added some crushed Oreo's into the cake mixture itself. To be honest, I'm not entirely sure it added much and I'm not sure I'd do it again as it produced a cake slightly denser than I would've liked- but try it for yourselves! Perhaps do half with crushed Oreos and half without (you won't need to change anything else in the recipe) and see which you prefer.

Chocolate Oreo Cupcakes

Makes 12

Cakes:

85g Unsalted butter

85g Caster Sugar.

85g Self- raising flour

3 Medium Eggs

1 tsp Vanilla extract

3 tbsp Milk

16 Oreos (4 are to add directly to the cake mix)

Icing:

100g Unsalted Butter

250g Icing sugar

30 ml Cream

Half a pack of crushed Oreos

Preheat your oven to 180°C/ 350°F/ Gas Mark 4 and line a cupcake tray with 12 cases.

Place one Oreo into each cupcake liner.

Chop your remaining Oreos into small pieces and set to one side.

In a large bowl cream together the butter and sugar until it reaches a light, fluffy consistency and a paler colour.

Begin to add your eggs and flour to your butter and sugar mix. Beat in the eggs one at a time, with each egg accompanied by a spoonful of your pre-measured flour- this will help prevent curdling. 

This is followed by adding all the remaining flour in one go, folding it into the mixture (in a figure of eight). If you beat it too hard, the mixture will not rise as well.

Once your mixture is fully combined, you can add in your liquid ingredients. Gently beat in the milk and vanilla until fully combined.

Finally gently stir in the Oreo pieces until fully combined.

Divide your mixture equally between the 12 cases, being careful not to over fill.

Bake your cakes in your preheated oven for 15-20 minutes, or until the tops bounce back and a skewer inserted comes out clean.

Remove from the oven and tray, and place on a wire rack to cool.

For the Icing:

Beat the butter in a large bowl until softened and smooth. Now add the icing sugar and continue to beat until light and creamy. From here you can add your cream, vanilla and crushed Oreos and continue beating until fully combined.

Feel free to add more icing sugar if the icing becomes too thin, or more cream if it is still to thick.

Ice your cooled cupcakes in whatever manner you so desire and feel free to decorate with whatever you have to hand!

Enjoy!

Alice

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