MayaKirana

I’ve never been a baker. I’m a soup maker but I’m not much of a baker.

The idea of a hot oven, a bunch of oily bowls (the aftermath of creaming butter and sugar etc) and washing up - well, that’s not really my idea of a good afternoon.

But I had made a promise. You see, when you make promises, you keep them. And so I was guilty because I had bought the needed ingredients but had yet to make good on my promise.

Ah well. On Saturday night, around 10.30pm, I dug out all my baking implements. The good thing about living by oneself (sans parents lah) is that I can do whatever I want, at whatever time I choose.

I can imagine what my Mum would say if I did this at home, in Banting. She’d ask me why do I have to start baking late at night. Baking for Mum is an activity to be done in the daytime. (My sis, Mei, also does late-night baking. I guess it’s a sudden whim thing or a craving suddenly for something to eat. She makes caramel puddings at midnight; I just bake!)

As I am such an amateur baker, I don’t even have a handmixer. I just roll up my sleeves and cream butter and sugar by hand. The only other person I know who does this is my Auntie Cheng Moy but she’s a seasoned baker and she has her Kenwood mixer but she just does not use it. I’m not trying to best her; I haven’t really thought of buying a handmixer so that shows how often I bake.

This time, I got a simple chocolate chip cookie recipe off this Singaporean woman’s blog because it looked deceptively simple!

All I had to do was to cream 150 gm of butter with 1 cup brown sugar, then add in 1 beaten egg and 2 teaspoons vanilla extract. After that, add in 1 cup plain flour (with 1 teaspoon baking soda added and sifted) together with 2 cups organic oats and 1 cup chocolate chips. Spoon tablespoonfuls of the cookie dough onto the baking tray and bake for 20 minutes at 180 degrees Centigrade.

Wasn’t it easy? (If it is complicated, I wouldn’t have jotted the recipe down. *grin*)

Anyway, the results: hmmm, large, soft and chewy chocolate chip cookies.

Nic told me it was a bit sweet but I think the extra sweetness comes from the chocolate chips (I used those from Silverbird). My cookies were a bit burnt on their bottoms. OKlah, this is my first time baking cookies, so a bit of a give-and-take. Next round, I would probably give these cookies 10 minutes bottom heat and 10 minutes top heat.

If you have a Cookie Monster at home (which I have), you can try out these cookies and see if your cookie monster likes it. You can also add raisins or nuts if you want too just for variation.