Chocolate chip cookies

Mother’s Day is looming. This recipe isn’t a Mother’s Day suggestion. Not that these cookies aren’t delicious and a wonderful gift to bestow on any well behaved mother, but well, they’re not quite formal enough for my liking. I think Mother’s Day needs something a little more old fashioned and restrained.

So, Mother’s Day gifts. I have been contemplating buying some frames, filling them with prints of the children and wrapping them in pretty tissue paper for the family matriarchs. But then it occurred to me that this could well be the worst kind of self absorption. Obviously I would never frame a picture of myself and bestow it to a family member. That would make me seem rather in love with my own reflection, a little bit of a horror frankly. But giving photos of my offspring seems okay, thoughtful even. But is it?

They’re my greatest life’s work, my biggest, most important project. They’re the thing I point at as an excuse for my under eye wrinkles, sagging belly and constant yawning. So to frame photos of them as a gift, is it really a right and proper gift for Mother’s Day? Or is it akin to an ex boyfriend of mine who prided himself on buying his girlfriend’s massage courses for their birthdays. As in ‘how to massage’ courses; not a course of massages. Perhaps these photos are a similar indulgence. A projection of being obsessed with oneself and ones achievements. A silent scream of “Look what I made! Aren’t they just wonderful?”

Or maybe I’m over thinking it.

Lots of great recipes like this in my book, Recipes from a Normal Mum, out now… on Amazon, The Works, at Waterstones, WHSmith, The Book Depository and many smaller outlets.

One year ago: Florentine quiche and Flourless chocolate cake and Cadbury Creme Mini Egg chocolate flapjackand School fair rocky road

Two year ago: White chocolate & cranberry hot cross buns and Cadbury creme egg mess and Banoffee pecan mini pavs

Three years ago: Easter Apostles scone loaf and Carrot cake in a cup for Mother’s Day and Cranberry oaty biscuits

Four years ago: Mini chocolate birds nests and Puff pastry and Walnut bread

Chocolate chip cookies

Ingredients:

Makes about 15

• 115g butter
• 1 level tbsp maple syrup
• 170g self-raising flour
• 85g caster sugar
• 1/2 level tsp bicarbonate of soda
• 200g chocolate chips

Preheat the oven to 190°C/gas mark 5 and line 2 baking trays with greaseproof paper. Melt the butter and syrup in a saucepan over a low heat until dissolved. Remove from the heat and add the flour, sugar, and bicarbonate of soda and give it a good mix with a wooden spoon. Leave the mixture to cool for a few minutes before stirring in the chocolate chips.

Using your hands, form handfuls of the warm mixture into balls about 4cm across, you should make about 15. Place them on the lined trays, making sure that there’s plenty of space for them to spread in the oven. I leave a 5cm gap between each. Bake in the oven for 12–15 minutes until the dough has spread into cracked looking biscuits.

If you like your biscuits with a bit of ‘chew’ (more cookie like) then take them out when only the sides are brown. If you like them crunchy then let the whole biscuit get a suntan. Let them cool on the baking tray for a few minutes then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.

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