It’s been three months since I wrote my first blog, and I am really enjoying this new endeavor. Exploring food blogs, studying cookbooks, watching food videos, planning, and then actually preparing the meals has been a rewarding experience. It is extremely satisfying when I write about it and upload it for you all to read along with photographs of my creations. I never imagined how difficult it would be to photograph food!
I must acknowledge that everything I make is inspired and motivated by the appreciation and encouragement I get from my husband and family. However, the drive to experiment with new recipes comes from my father; he loves to eat nutritious food and explore new cuisines. He has a sweet-tooth, and lately I have been wondering what to make for him to express my gratitude and love for being the inspiration behind my culinary creativity. I went through my pantry and found chocolate chips. I decided to bake chocolate chip cookies, which he loves to eat with mixed chai (known locally as dum wali chai).
I have never tried making cookies or biscuits before. What if they don’t turn out great? There are so many recipes out there and it is always hard to choose which one to follow. I decided to go with Chef Laal Majid’s recipe, from her book ‘Chocolate’. Thick, chewy, and with a warm brown sugar flavor creamed with butter and a handful of good quality chocolate chips made perfect cookies. Needless to say, my family was happy.
Ingredients:
- Egg – 1
- Flour – 1 ½ cup
- Brown sugar – ¼ cup
- White sugar – ¾ cup
- Butter – 8 tablespoon
- Salt – ¼ teaspoon
- Vanilla essence – 1 teaspoon
- Baking powder – ½ teaspoon
- Chocolate chips – ¾ cup
Instructions:
- Preheat the oven to 180 degrees
- Melt the butter in a saucepan over low heat, stirring occasionally. Then set aside and let it cool to room temperature
- In a bowl, cream butter and sugar together until fluffy
- Add vanilla essence and eggs, beating at a slow speed with an electric beater (beat for only 10 to 15 seconds after adding - if the eggs are is beaten for long, the cookies will be stiff)
- Add flour, baking powder, salt and chips and mix to form a cookie dough and refrigerate for 5 minutes.
- Scoop out the dough into the cookie sheets and space them 2 inches apart.
- Bake in a preheated oven for 10 minutes until the cookies look just barely golden and tops are cracked. Cool on the cookie sheet for 5 minutes, then move to a wire rack to cool completely.
- Melting butter is important.
- Add enough flour, if the dough is wet and sticks to your hand, probably need a little more flour. This step is important otherwise the cookies will turn flat.
- Don’t overbake the cookies. This is important to keep the cookies soft. Initially they might look pale and puffy but let them cool for 30 minutes or so (I mean, I knows it’s hard but patience is virtue J), once they are cool they will be turn dense, buttery and soft.
Fatima Ali
I am trained to be an IT professional. I served National University of Sciences and Technology (NUST) for six years after graduating from the same university. As long as I can remember, cooking good food has been my passion and it makes me happy. My cooking lessons were a bit unusual though. Back in the day when digital did not mean much, my father would record cooking shows (knorr ka kitchen, kaukab khuwaja and Zee Khana Khazana – Chef Sanjeev Kapoor) for me to watch endless times later on, before trying the recipes out. I would make brownies and cold cake almost every day while my mother was asleep. This was my way of surprising her every evening. My mother cooks amazing food too and I have tried many of the recipes written in her recipe book. I draw inspiration from a number of chefs from televised cooking shows such as Late Chef Farah, Chef Rahat, Chef Mehboob, BBC Food, Masala TV, Chef Shai, Chef Sharmeen, Master Chef Australia and my ultimate favorite Chef Shireen Anwer. I would not be as good a cook I am now without passive guidance from each one of these.
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