Cookies for Santa- Take one

My father is a cowboy from the states, Idaho to be exact. Therefore a lot of my cooking has been influenced by American recipes. My first baking experiments were going through his American cookbooks  which have a lot of weird stuff in them (there was a chocolate mayonnaise cake that tasted exactly as it sounds and you're right-it wasn't a success). American's do however make the best chocolate chip cookies. Growing up on American cookies- I have to learn you NZ people that the perfect chocolate chip cookie should be chewy and soft almost cake like in the centre.

I've tried many many different recipes in search of the perfect one but today, after not being able to sleep post my 12 hour night shift I decided I needed something sweet. I've been wanting to try Alton Brown's "The Chewy" recipe after reading rave reviews about it so I gave it a go today, putting my own spin on it, and they turned out perfect.

Change 1: Not having made this recipe before, I got to the final stages before adding the chocolate and decided that the mixture was too runny. Therefore I added the extra egg white (that's 2 whole eggs) as well as an extra half a cup of flour.

Change 2: Chocolate chips have oil in them to help them keep their shape. I'm not so interested in that so I always use a king size block of chocolate chopped into reasonably large chunks. Today I used Whittakers dark chocolate because dark chocolate is the best. The result is huge chunks of melted chocolate. Amazing.

Change 3: I also added about half a cup of chopped walnuts to add a bit of texture.

The chilling part is very very important to stop the cookies from spreading too much. 

I suggest doubling the dough and freezing it in balls ready for flash homemade cookies anytime of day. 

Served with a glass of milk, I'm sure Santa will be very happy to get these.

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas

Cinnamon rolls are definitely a fav of mine but I've always found bread making really difficult (partly because of the fact that i'm impatient and can't be assed waiting for rising times). However I gave this recipe a go after seeing it on one of my favorite blogs Cupcakes and Cashmere and it worked wonderfully. The dough didn't quite go smooth and elastic like it's supposed to so I was bit worried that the bread was going to be a bit tough but it was amazingly soft and delicious. Topped with a cream cheese frosting, this is definitely what I want to wake up to Christmas morning (hint hint Santa). TIP: you could totally chuck the rolls in the fridge overnight after cutting them to delay the second rising stage, and then bring them to room temperature and bake them in the morning. But I reheated mine in the microwave for 30 seconds and they were still extra good.