Christmas in a Cookie — With Love, Kate

A cautionary word of warning before you proceed here. Only make as many cookies as you will allow yourself to guiltlessly eat in an afternoon. Or bake them right before welcoming friends, but do not bake them to take to friends, for you will probably end up on their doorstep with a paltry box of crumbs, licking your lips.

I’m not a huge campaigner for minced fruit, however blasphemous it may seem. I am, however, all about the holiday season. And these cookies, which are better suited to my perhaps less-sophisticated taste. They are my new favourite thing about this time of year, and have been made no fewer than three times in the past ten days. Our little London flat smells glorious.

I have adapted an essential recipe from Millie’s Cookies, and added my favourite winter flavours to it - tart cranberries, fresh orange and silky white chocolate (featured twice). These take about half an hour to make and bake, plus a little cooling time in the fridge. You will get about 16 large cookies from this, depending on how much batter is sampled during the process.

Takes about 45 minutes, makes 16 large cookies

INGREDIENTS

125g butter, softened
100g light brown soft sugar
125g caster sugar
1 egg, lightly beaten
1 tsp vanilla extract
225g self-raising flour
½ tsp salt
300g white chocolate, broken into small chunks (my preference is Cadbury’s Milky Bar)
½ cup of dried cranberries, chopped
zest of 1 large orange

METHOD

1. Turn up the oven to 180 degrees, and line baking trays with grease-proof papers.

2. Cream butter and sugars, and then combine in the beaten egg and vanilla.

3. Sift in the flour and the salt.

4. Add in the orange zest and 200g of the broken chocolate. You can either add the cranberries here, or decorate the cookies with them right after dipping them in chocolate post-baking.

5. Roll into walnut size balls, and lay out onto trays.

6. For best results, bake for about 7 minutes. Keep an eye on them, as they turn brown quickly.

7. Take out of the oven and leave to cool for about 15 minutes. In the meantime, slowly melt the remaining chocolate in a bain-marie.

8. Take the cookies and dip into the chocolate, placing back onto the paper to cool. You can add the cranberries on top here.