White Chocolate chunk cookies (from 500 Cookies by Philippa Vanstone; Apple Press 2005)
115 g unsalted butter
200g golden caster sugar
1 egg
2 teasp vanilla essence
190 g SR flour
1/4 teasp salt (optional, I don’t add any)
50 g oatmeal (I used jumbo rolled oats as that’s what I had)
225 g chopped white chocolate chunks
Preheat oven to 190 °C/170°C for a fan oven/ 375°F/Gas Mark 5
Prepare a couple of baking trays lined with baking parchmment
White Chocolate chunk cookies (from 500 Cookies by Philippa Vanstone; Apple Press 2005)
Beat the butter and sugar and then add the egg and vanilla. Sift in the dry ingredients and then stir in the oatmeal and the chocolate chunks.
Roll into walnut balls and place on to the prepared baking sheets about 5 cm/2″ apart. Flatten slightly. Bake for 8-10 minutes. Cool for 5 minutes on the baking tray and then transfer to a wire rack.
When cool store in an airtight tin for 4-5 days.
I made 40 good sized cookies (c.5cm/2″) and could I think have made them a little bit smaller.
Next time I make them I would use fewer chocolate chunks and added more oatmeal. White chocolate lovers adored them but I find white chocolate a bit too sweet. The oatmeal made them deliciously chewy and even more chewy and oatmealy and less sweet would have been even better.
Lotus flower – one left on each of our beds in Angkor Village Resort, Siem Reap, Cambodia
Jet lag is supposed to be more of a problem West to East, which was true of the one and only time I went to New York. However, this time East to West seemed to be no problem at all – even with no sleep at all and an 8 hour night long session in Abu Dhabi Airport during which I almost continuously embroidered. Coming home was more uncomfortable and I had fitful sleep but had some good naps at daughter No 1’s house before heading home to Oxfordshire the following day. Since then, however, I have felt pathetic and on the verge of getting flu. On the plus side, I no longer stay awake until 2am but am in bed straight after – or during – Newsnight. This has the wonderful corollary that I am awake and alert by 7am and go downstairs for tea and early morning sewing as the sun comes up. Long may this effect last, especially once the fatigue has departed. So, perhaps a little cheer for jetlag…
Couldn’t resist the photograph of origamied lotus flower. Wanted to bring it home, but how could you – and that was even before buying 2 suitcases of pottery, etc., etc.
8 Comments
The effects of jetlag vary from person to person, with some more affected one way, some the other, and some either completely immune to its effects or alternatively, equally flattened regardless. I’m one of the latter, but I must admit that the temporary early rising can have a real upside!
That’s interesting Rachel – it is surprising quite how potent jet lag can be and how confusing the symptoms are. Still after years of being pathetic in the morning, the early waking and rising is a real bonus.
Those biscuits look delicious. Like you I find white chocolate too sweet. I wonder if using dark chocolate would render them less sweet without disrupting the balance by increasing the oats, just a thought. Have you ever made Mary Berry’s ‘Oat Rounds’? They are delicious, not too sweet, and very quick to make. Mary Berry uses margerine, I make mine with butter, here is the recipe:
50g caster sugar
100g butter (or margarine)
100g rolled oats
50g plain flour
Preheat oven to Gas 3/160C
Cream butter and sugar, add oats and flour amd mix until fully combined. Tip onto lightly floured surface, knead very lightly until smooth, roll out to 5 mm thick, cut out, bake for 20 mins approx until beginning to colour and cooked through. Cool on wire rack.
I sometimes half dip in dark chocolate too, which looks nice and tastes delicous. Un-chocolated they are very plain, but in my opinion equally delicious. X
Thank you Penny – I remember you saying that about white chocolate before.
The truth is I’m trying to make a different biscuit each week and sometimes I get desperate that I haven’t thought ahead. This is a recipe I hadn’t tried and is incredibly easy so … why look a gift horse in the face! And there’s just that sneaky feeling that less white chocolate and more oats would really make a more sophisticated biscuit.
But thank you for bothering to write out the above recipe – I certainly shall not look this gift horse (sorry) in the face and can only say you have saved me hours (well minutes) of panic stricken flicking through recipes next Saturday. Excellent.
Firstly – welcome back and I am so looking forward to reading about your trip. I am highly unlikely to visit Vietnam and so am definitely up for some vicarious travelling.
Secondly – I am just about to start making biscuits for a group and I was wondering where to start. I think that you should have a list of recommended recipes for the novice biscuiteer.
Here Alice are 10 of best biscuits from the last couple of years: You could search my blog for them by name or by date.Best of luck.
Sour cherry amaretti (19 Feb 2014)
Glacé giner macaroons (16 Dec 2015)
Toblerone biscuits (1 Dec 2015)
Chocolate macaroons (27 Nov 2015)
Beacon Hill Cookies (28 Oct 2015)
Swedish cardamom and almond cookies (25 Aug 2015)
Raspberry & lemon cloud biscuits (21 March 2015)
Unbelievable chocolate biscuits (3 Feb 2015)
Pecan puffs (17 June 2014)
Bakewell biscuits (26 May 2014)
So with you on the jet lag nightmare. My east to west homeward journey from NZ, back and back into darkness seemed endless and it has taken me weeks to get any semblance of a sleep pattern back. But like you I am now an early riser which I never was, so maybe there are advantages.
Loving the posts, son loved Vietnam and the people. He visited the Hmong tribe and came back with some wonderful pictures and fabrics.
Reading about your experience (and hearing your reader’s advice) was the thing that helped me understand that I was jet lagged and not actually ill – so thank you, I felt immediately soothed and surrendered to the predicted gradual recovery. I now feel fine.
I’m very interested to hear that your son enjoyed Vietnam – his photos and fabrics would make for some great blog posts. The Hmong and similar tribes are still colourfully themselves. How long this can continue with increasing tourism and the country’s economic advancement I don’t know. In fact, I’ll go so far as to urge that you have a positive duty to document what he saw and what he brought back – and if he has any anecdotes or can recall his impressions that would be even better – please, Lynne.