Cake style choc chip cookies

What a miserable day its been outside! My plans to get fresh air (and a little retail therapy!) were scrapped when the rain started splattering across the car windscreen after picking up my eldest niece this morning, and she decided we should bake instead. I don't need much excuse to do a spot of baking and after a quick trip to get some more butter, then came the hard part - what to bake!

Alice suggested cookies. This is all good and well. Except for some reason I rarely make cookies, I am much more a cake kinda girl. There is also the slightly embarrassing fact I have not baked cookies in a long time, and didn't really fancy the perfectly edible ones that I've had previous success with. I'm not sure what it is with cookies, anything that requires resting in the fridge for x amount of hours puts me off. I am very much in the instant gratification camp of baking! And overall I really do like cake.

Whilst I am slightly sad to report that my cookbooks are also being decreased, I really do not have room or need for so many and in the process of selling a selection of them, fortunately however I had saved this particular 'Best ever Cookies' book from the 'to-go' pile and managed to find a cookie recipe in it which appealed to both of us, and more importantly could be whizzed up, baked and consumed with a lovely cup of tea in rapid time! It also helped that I had all the ingredients in my limited baking supplies cupboard (read that as shut the door quickly and hope it doesn't collapse on itself cupboard) So as the recipe worked, I guess it was fate to keep the book and will have to find room for it!

Our resulting cookies were whilst falling within the cookie camp, also reminded me more of a rock cake but softer kinda cookie, and are very moreish! They are quite soft but not so soft they fall apart, making them ideal for dunking! The texture inside is cakey like, I think the use of self-raising flour does give them quite a good lift and lightens their texture nicely.

I didn't have the full amount of chocolate to hand, so made do with a 100g bar of dark swiss chocolate bashed up, and a good handful of descicated coconut which worked really well with the flavours. 

Also I am still getting the hang of the new oven, our first two trays came out a little more suntanned than planned so I reduced the temperature by 10 degrees and shaved a minute off the cooking time, which worked perfectly. Your oven may well behave differently, I think mine is older than me...!

Makes 18-20

Oven 180-190 - see above!

115g soft butter (I used stork)

115g light muscovado sugar

1 egg

1/2 tsp vanilla extract (or 1 tsp vanilla essence)

150g self raising flour

75g porridge oats

100g plain chocolate (book calls for 230g white and dark or choc chips)

4 heaped tbsp desiccated coconut

Cream together the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add the egg and vanilla, beat well, sift in the flour (I actually have no sieve at the moment but fortunately didn't affect the recipe!) and fold in using a metal spoon, along with the oats and chocolate until mixed. 

Place dessert spoon sized blobs on lined baking trays, leaving a gap as they will spread out. Bake for 14 minutes or until golden brown and your kitchen smells delicious. Cool for a couple of minutes then transfer to a wire rack and resist the urge until cooled sufficiently enough not to burn yourself.