Oven love & some (White) Chocolate Chip Cookies

"A new home(the pic below), a new kitchen and a new oven as well". :) I am almost settled in my new home and getting used to the daily routine like before. Well, as usual the kitchen is small (well...any kitchen is small for an Indian cook) as it suits the typical English cooking. And I also dread the "HOT PLATE". It spoils my entire cooking pace and makes me do things in a hurry....oh oh look ...there goes another burnt chapathi....Hurry up, u got to match with the heat of the plate!!

But the more I hate the Hot Plate, the more am loving the oven. The owners have installed a brand new oven in this house (Oh! Bless them!!). And today I actually wanted to try out the very simple chocolate chip cookies in it to see how it turned out. And I got a tear in my eye when I saw those little scoops of dough, forming into crispy big round cookies, just like you get in a good bakery shop.

So to celebrate my house warming with all you foodie lovers, here's my simple recipe of a Chocolate Chip Cookie. I have put white chips cos Arun likes white chocolate & I have added cocoa powder to satisfy my chocolate desire. ;)

Ingredients:

• 150 gm unsalted butter
• 125 gm soft light brown sugar
• 100 gm caster sugar
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 1 egg
• 1 egg yolk
• 300 gm flour (sieve and keep it)
• 2 tbsp of cocoa powder (optional)
• 1/2 tsp soda bicarbonate
• 300 gm chocolate chips (white or brown)

Method:

1. Preheat the oven to 170 degrees celsius.
2. Melt the butter in the microwave for 30 seconds & keep aside. Take a mixing bowl and mix in the brown & white sugar. Pour the melted butter over them & beat well until soft.
3. Pour in the vanilla extract, egg & the yolk to the sugar mixture & beat well together until light & creamy.
4. Slowly mix in the flour & the soda bicarb & cocoa powder to the creamy mixture until nicely blended in. Then put in the chocolate chips.
5. Be ready with your baking tray or sheet. Scoop the cookie mixture with an ice cream scoop & plop them onto the tray or sheet maintaining the distance of 5-6 cm between each cookie. Make in 2 or 3 batches if the mixture is more.
6. Put the baking tray inside the oven & bake for at least 15 minutes or until the edges are lightly crisp.
7. Another way of knowing whether the cookies are done is by moving the cookie by a knife. If the cookie doesn't stick to the bottom, then take the tray out. Cool the tray for 5 minutes before touching the cookies.

Yummy cookies are now ready to be gobbled off.