Hello, my name is Jenny and I am a cookie addict. It’s true. I’m unsure when or where my love of cookies took root but I feel it’s been with me for many years. But what do you define as a cookie?
Once upon a time, a kind line manager came in after work and gifted me a pack of cookies to brighten my afternoon… but they weren't cookies in my mind, because they snapped in half. If a ‘cookie’ snaps, it’s a biscuit. Cookies should bend. That’s my rule of thumb. Interestingly, from internet research, this makes sense. Americans were introduced to the cookie by Dutch colonists. Cookie is derived from the Dutch word ‘koekje’ which means ‘little cake’ whereas biscuit means twice baked - snap!
Cookies are a really great treat to share out when you go to a swim group like a Mental Health Swim session or Dawnstalkers at Penarth seafront or when you have a guided group session with a swim guide.
My recommendation to have the best cookies on the shoreline is to have a bit of forward planning. I would make these a couple of days before a meet-up - don’t worry, once made, keep them in an air-tight container and your cookies will stay fresh for your swim meet. The reason for this is that great cookie dough mixture ideally needs cooling in the fridge overnight but it is TOTALLY worth it!
Ingredients
280g plain flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 and 1/2 teaspoons cornflower
1/2 teaspoon salt
170g unsalted butter, melted & cooled 5 minutes
150g packed light or dark brown sugar
100g granulated sugar
1 large egg + 1 egg yolk
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
225g chocolate chips or chocolate chunks
Instructions
- Mix the flour, baking soda, cornflour, and salt in a large bowl.
- In a medium bowl, whisk the melted butter, brown sugar, and granulated sugar together until no brown sugar lumps remain.
- Whisk in the egg and egg yolk. Finally, whisk in the vanilla extract. The mixture will be thin.
- Pour the mixture into the dry ingredients bowl and mix with a large spoon. The dough will be very soft, thick, and will appear greasy.
- Fold in the chocolate chips. The chocolate chips may not stick to the dough but do your best to push them together. This is the stage where you can get creative. I used white and milk chocolate chips but you could experiment with different combinations.
One of the best cookies I have ever had (yes I do remember cookies) was one from when I was in New Zealand. Fresh out of the oven it was a white chocolate and ginger cookie and was simply amazing.
- Cover the dough tightly and chill in the fridge for a couple of hours. I left mine overnight.
- Take the dough out of the fridge. It will be hard so just let it soften up while you get the oven on and heated to 160 degrees.
- Prep your baking sheets for your cookies.
- Ideally, you want about 60g of cookie dough per cookie. But it’s your bake so you decide what size you want them to be.
- Roll them into balls - more taller than wide. This helps the cookies bake up thicker.
- Bake the cookies for 12–13 minutes or until the edges are very lightly browned. I did a small batch in my first oven cookie run. And I’m glad I did as I fell into the trap of “they don’t look cooked” and ended up being very British, whacking them in for more minutes and I made a biscuit instead of a cookie. Don’t be put off by the cookies looking very soft as they will set as they cool. It is that that will make the gooey cookie loveliness when you eat it after your swim.
- Once all the cookie mixture has had its go in the oven, allow them to cool for 10 minutes on the baking sheets before transferring them to a wire frame for complete cooldown.
These cookies can stay fresh for up to a week, but once your swimming buddies say things like “Ooooh they’re like supermarket cookies” or “Better than Dominios cookies” I am positive that you will soon find all of them gone and everyone around you have satisfied smiles on their faces.
Check out our other post-swim recipes to have at your favourite swimming locations.
