I love coffee, and because I love coffee, I love cookies.  And what’s a piping hot coffee without a great cookie to go with it?  That’s my comfort food.  Cookies are also a popular treat for the lunch box, and they travel well.  If you can find yourself a great basic cookie recipe, you’re set.  You can make plain cookies dusted with icing sugar, jam drops, choc-chip cookies, raisin cookies, cookies dipped in hundreds and thousands, or covered in smarties, you’re options are limitless.

Finding the right basic recipe can take a bit of trial and error, and I have had some failures……tasteless, too hard, or too soft etc.  But last Friday I made a Butter Biscuit Recipe I found on taste.com and it’s perfect.  I doubled the recipe and made the first dozen plain, dusted with icing sugar, and the second dozen were jam drops.  I was impressed with the fact that they held their shape and the jam didn’t run everywhere, yet they were lovely and soft.  Melt in your mouth soft, but not fall apart in your hands soft.  So, if your kids  like a nice soft cookie, this is your recipe.  I hope you like it.

Ingredients:

125g butter, softened

1/2 cup caster sugar

1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 egg, at room temperature

2 cups plain flour

1 teaspoon baking powder

1 tablespoon milk

Method:

Preheat oven to 180°C. Line 2 baking trays with baking paper.

Using an electric mixer, beat butter, sugar and vanilla in a small bowl until pale and creamy. Add egg and mix until well combined. Sift flour and baking powder over butter mixture. Add milk and stir until just combined.

Using 2 teaspoons of dough at a time, roll dough into balls slightly larger than a rum ball.

Place on baking trays lined with baking paper.

Using a lightly-floured fork, flatten biscuits slightly (allow room for spreading).

Bake for 12 to 15 minutes, swapping trays over in oven after 10 minutes, or until light golden.

Allow to cool on trays for 5 minutes. Transfer to wire racks to cool completely.

Dust with icing sugar. Serve.

LunchBox Tips….

If you love your cookies freshly baked, but want to save yourself some time, you can roll your dough into balls, place them on a tray in the freezer, and when they are frozen place them in a labeled zip lock bag.  You could also just roll the dough into logs, wrap in grease-proof paper, then glad wrap and freeze.  When you want fresh cookies, remove dough from the freezer, thaw, and bake as you normally would.  If you froze in logs you can slice the cookies and bake immediately.