Well May was a bit of a chilly washout but June is here and the sun is back! With it brings our some our favourite seasonal fruits like strawberries, raspberries, blueberries and cherries. ‘Pick Your Own’ farms across Dorset begin to open to the public in June so do keep your eyes peeled for your local farms and where you can pick some delicious fresh fruit.
Hospitality is open again and I don’t know about you, but I have missed it! There are plenty of new menus full of local ingredients and it has been great to see how owners and chefs have used the time to transform their venues. Many require you to book ahead but please remember to support your local places by cancelling tables that you no longer wish to use so they can seat other guests instead.
Sunday 20th June is also Father’s Day and many local businesses are offering delicious Father’s Day specials that would make perfect gifts. If you would prefer to try and make something as a gift for your Dad this year, then this cookie recipe is simple and quick to make but still packs a punch with flavour. I like to add giant chunks of chocolate to my cookies, but you can change that for any ingredient you like – perhaps white chocolate instead, or chopped nuts and dried fruit.
Ingredients
125g butter
125g caster sugar
100g soft brown sugar
1tsp vanilla extract
1 egg
225g self raising flour
300g chocolate (broken into chunks).
Method
Preheat the oven to 180fan/gas 5.
Grease and line 2 baking trays with baking parchment.
In a bowl, beat together the butter, both sugars and the vanilla extract until light and fluffy (either with an electric mixer or a wooden spoon).
Then beat in the egg until the mixture is smooth.
Carefully stir in the flour and once combined, add in the chocolate.
Using your hand, scoop out the mixture and place onto the tray in rough ball shaped blobs (about the size of the palm of your hand). I like to put six on each tray and space them out with lots of space between as they spread when they bake. You can make smaller cookies if you wish, just make the balls of mixture smaller.
Bake in the oven for 15 minutes. Check to make sure they are golden brown all over and cracked across the top. Cook for a couple of minutes more if still pale in the centre.
Freshly baked cookies are amazing but do try and leave them to cool for 5 or so minutes before eating as they will still be very soft initially and this gives them time to harden a little.
Makes 12 large cookies.
By: Heather Brown
