chocolate chip cookies

Chocolate Chip Cookies are probably my favorite cookies (even though I have a sweet spot for sablés!). I discovered them when I was in Canada and I tried lots of different brands before I started cooking. But homemade cookies beats the brand any time so I’m sharing my recipe (tasted again and again over the years).

Don’t forget the salt and try to use sea salt flakes aas it really adds depth to the taste. Don’t add too much sugar as the chocolate chips are already sweet.

The great thing is that this recipe is great for everyone, whatever the diet (all the alternatives are in the ingredients list).

If you have a pastry blender, now it’s time to use it. If you don’t have one, use 2 table knives or your fingers, although it’s not as effective (the butter needs to stay cool so if you have warm fingers it can be a problem).

If you use a stand mixer, it develops the gluten too much and it incorporates the butter too evenly.

If you love cookies, scones, sablés and co, nothing replaces the pastry blender!

 

You can either make about 10 large cookies (15cm diameter) or about 20 small ones.

 

-270g flour (you can choose: wholewheat 80%, spelt, buckwheat, quinoa, or a mix of rice/coco/chickpea)

 

-1/2 tsp sea salt flakes

-1/2 tsp baking soda 

 

-185g cold butter cut in cubes or thin slices (you can use coconut oil but make sure to store it in the fridge at least 30 minutes before using)

-140g unrefine sugar (rapadura, muscovado… you can divide the amount and use down to 50g, as you like)

-1 egg or the equivalent in egg replacer (1 tbsp of egg replacer + 2 tbsp of water)

-either the grains of 1/2 a grated vanilla pod, or 1/2 tsp of natural vanilla extract (avoid synthetic aromas as it’s not as subtle as real vanilla!)

-250g of dark chocolate chips (if you don’t have any chips, roughly cut dark chocolate with a good knife)

 

Preheat the oven at 150°C.

 

Mix the flour with the salt and the baking soda.

Add the butter (or coconut oil) and work with the pastry blender until the mix is sandy.

In your stand mixer, beat the egg with the sugar and the vanilla until it’s whitened.

Add the egg to the flour without over working it then incorporate the chocolate chips.

Use a spoon to transfer little patties of dough to a baking sheet covered with either parchment paper or a silicone matt.

Wether your cookies are thinner or thicker, the result is different so vary!

 

If you don’t want to put chocolate all over you, you need to wait for the cookies to cool. Place them on a cooling rack and go far away in the meantime!

 

You could divide the chocolate chips in half and replace it with roughly chopped walnuts.

batbot – the Moroccan bread

Batbot are flat bread cooked on a frying pan. You tuck a piece of it to eat tajine or couscous.

Mine are very thin but I think that, traditionally, it should be thicker. So mine are crusty and not soft. I like it crusty and use it like a spoon. the soft ones absorb the sauce. I guess I should make both kind to make everyone happy!

In the classic recipe, you have to mix half durum wheat flour (like the one to make pasta dough) and half wheat flour (like the one used for pastry). I didn’t have the durum wheat flour so I made do without it although I think it’s great for your batbot’s texture.

So I’ll have to do it again with the miw of flour and with thicker dough!

For about 40 breads

1kg of wheat flour(half durum wheat)

1 tsp sea salt flakes

1 pack of fresh yeast (about 40g)

500ml of thawed water

3 tbsp olive oil

Mix the yeast in the water.

Mix the flour with the salt.

Pour water/yeast and olive oil in the middle of the flour.

Knead until the dough doesn’t stick to the bowl anymore.

Spread the dough on a flour working board and cut it with a cookie cutter or a glass.

Put the disks on cooking paper, cover with a wet towel and leave to rest 1 hour.

Spread the dough to get thin galette.

If you want thicker bread, cut them the right size to start with and don’t spread it after it has rested.

Cook them one by one on a warm frying pan. Oil it lightly using an oiled paper towel. 

When little bubbles form on the bread, turn it over.

 

5 ways to eat healthily

1/. Eat less meat but eat a lot more veggie at each meal.

 

2/. Eat a lot less sugar (added sugar, desserts, sweet drinks, soda, ice cream, alcohol…)

 

3/. Eat in a quiet place and chew instead of running around doing a thousand things and swallow straight from the fork!

 

4/. Diversify your menus!

 

5/. Eat less salt and add spices and herbs to wake your taste buds up.