This weekend I cycled to Brighton and back, plus the fan oven broke… so I’m being lazy and doing choc chip cookies for my Monday work baking.

Cookies can be crispy, chewy or cakey, and here’s a brilliant Good Eats episode about how you control the differences: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d0rGApqWuMI

Of course I’m going to go with Cook’s Illustrated for my recipe (subscription required).

• 170g butter
• 10.5oz plain flour
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/2 tsp bicarb of soda
• 7oz dark brown sugar
• 3.5oz caster sugar
• 1 medium egg plus 1 medium egg yolk
• 2 tsp vanilla extract
• 1.5 cups of chocolate chips: some dark, some white, and the last of the red buttons crushed up

Mix the dry ingredients, melt the butter, mix butter and sugar, mix in dry, mix in choc chips. Easy!

Then there’s a trick with putting them on the baking tray. It starts with making into a ball, but then you tear it in half and put back together with the torn parts face up, to give some texture.

Then they go into the fridge, using my new extra shelves in that are just for chilling baking!

Cook at 160c regular oven (140c if your fan oven is working…) for 16 minutes total, turning half way through. Then onto cooling racks.

They turned out a bit crispier than I wanted, given they were meant to be chewy. That would be because of the different oven… but probably more due to me doing smaller cookies than the recipe suggests. Still: yum!