Our resident baker and well-know member, Tracey Ebbs, shares some of her top recipes that you can make to help alleviate the boredom at home and provide you and your family with a tasty treat!
This week:
Chocolate Chip Shortbread
This is a melt in the mouth twist on a classic shortbread biscuit. Doesn’t chocolate make everything taste just a little bit better? This is a really simple recipe that pretty much replicates the ones you get at the in-store bakery.
If you like, you can cut the cookies out and freeze them raw, then cook them straight from frozen when you fancy a treat.
Ingredients
225g butter, room temperature
100g granulated sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
250g plain flour
100g chocolate chips
Method
- In the bowl of your stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment mix the butter, sugar and vanilla together for 2 minutes until it’s a creamy consistency. Turn the mixer to low and slowly add in the flour, mixing until just combined. You can use an electric hand mixer, just turn it to the lowest speed and add the flour a spoonful at a time to avoid burning out the motor.
- Stir in the chocolate chips evenly.
- Transfer the dough to a plastic bag and chill in the fridge for at least 2 hours. Alternately, you can roll your dough out now and cut into shapes, and then chill the dough. Both methods are effective. The chilling firms up the dough and means they spread less and retain their shape upon cooking.
- Preheat oven to 170 C/ 160 Fan/ Gas 3. Line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper and set aside.
- Roll dough out into a large square, 1cm thick. Cut the dough into squares using a knife, or you could use cookie cutters.
- Place on baking sheet about 2cm apart and bake for 18-20 minutes.
- Transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.