Iced Butterfly Cookies

I treated myself to a Peggy Porschen book with my birthday money 'Peggy's Favourite Cakes & Cookies'. I was so impressed with the cookies decorated with royal icing I couldn't wait to have a go myself.

The cookies in the book are absolutely beautiful and full instructions are given on how to make the cookies and then the different consistencies of icing needed to decorate them.

I've only ever used royal icing once before when decorating a large cake to put little dots all over it so that doesnt really count at all...so basically I was a complete novice! I actually thought I was pretty ok at piping since I pipe butter cream onto cupcakes allll the time. However, ask me to pipe an outline onto a cookie...the pressure is on and my hands are shaking like mad!

The recipe made a huuuge amount of cookies...think I had about 30 in the end...so plenty to practice on. Have a look at my piccies...I don't think they are a bad first attempt but definitely something I want to keep practicing. I sooo want them to look as perfect as they do in the book!!

Chocolate Chip Cookies

I wanted a lazy Sunday this weekend and what better recipe to make to nibble on whilst chilling out watching a film than chocolate chip cookies. I mean...who doesn't love home made cookies? There is nothing quite like the aroma of freshly baked cookies wafting through your home for bringing back all those childhood memories.

I remember as a child my mum would always, without fail use the recipe from her Be-ro flour cook book but for a change and because I absolutely love this book (if you hadn't noticed!) I decided to try the Hummingbird Bakery recipe.

I have baked some cookies from this book before (before I started blogging my baking adventures) and they were just how a cookie should be...crisp on the outside and chewy and soft on the inside. Well, this recipe did not disappoint either...again it produced the perfect cookie consistancy and lots of them! The recipe said it made around 24....I ended up with a lot more than this!

To make....

225g unsalted butter
350g soft light brown sugar
2 eggs
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
400g plain flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 1/2 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
225g dark chocolate

baking trays lined with grease proof paper

Preheat the overn to 170C
Cream the butter and sugar until light and fluffy
Add the eggs one at a time mixing well and scaraping any unmixed ingredients from the side of the bowl.
Mix in the vanilla extract
Add the flour, salt and bicarbonate of soda and mix until a smooth dough is formed. Stir in the chopped chocolate until evenly dispersed.
Arranged 6 equal amounts of cookie dough on each prepared baking tray (I must have small baking trays cos I found I could only make 3 cookies at a time)
Bake in the preheated over for about 10 mins or until golden brown around the edges and quite flat.
Leave the cookies to cool slightly before turning out onto a wire cooling rack to cool completely.