Shirazi Chocolate Chip Cookies

I finally used the trays, the cookie trays I mean! My old ones were bent out of shape and in a pretty sad state, they had more bruschetta’s made on them than cookies lately, so this addition was essential. Apart from Halloween (which my 5 year old knows a lot about!!), we bake for both Diwali and Christmas, mainly because we celebrate both with great gusto. For Halloween we will do plain sugar cookies, the roll out kinds, so we get a nice smooth canvas to decorate on. For diwali Andy has promised to help us make vanilla drops with little yellow icing flames on them and for Christmas we want to do butter cookies with milk chocolate chips and chocolate cookies with white chocolate chips (these are so luxurious you will want to cry, with joy that is!).

I wanted to do my basic chocolate chip cookies and because I had dark chocolate chips I wanted fluffy cake like chocolate cookies to stud them in. This recipe is simple and delicious, use a spatula to fold in all the dry ingredients and don’t worry, however dry it looks, it will all mix. This makes a huge batch of 36 or so regular sized cookies. I have a regular convection oven and it fits a tray that’s 10” wide and 8” broad, I make 6 cookies on each tray because they spread. Bake on 200 degrees for about 4-5 minutes, peak in once to see if the sides are getting crisp, no point using a toothpick to see if they cooked because you are likely to pierce a chip and think the cookie is under done.

Ingredients: (use the same cup as measure for all ingredients)

1 cup butter, softened
1 1/2 cups white sugar or alternately you can use 1 cup white sugar and ½ cup brown sugar
2 eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
2 cups all-purpose flour
2/3 cup cocoa powder
3/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 cup chocolate chips (I used dark, you can use milk but with this much sugar and dark cocoa, it may get too sweet)

1/2 cup chopped walnuts (optional, I never use any, my family is not big on nuts in food, muffins and cakes will do but other than that they prefer them roasted)

Preheat oven to 200 degrees C). Beat the butter, sugar, eggs, and vanilla in a large bowl, until light and fluffy. Fold in the flour, cocoa, baking soda, and salt; blend well into the butter mixture. I usually sift the dry ingredient together but I use a rice colander and not a mesh sieve, I just want everything to blend together and I hate losing my dark cocoa in a sieve. Lastly, mix in the chocolate chips and walnuts, if you are using any. Grease the cookie trays, I grease the Tefal ones too, I like them to just slip off once they cool. To bake, drop rounded teaspoonfuls on the cookie sheet and bake. Cool slightly on the cookie sheets before transferring to wire racks to cool completely. Box them only after they are totally cooled. These stay for a week or so, refrigerate if it’s peak summer.