Chocolate Cookies

Now I’m sure there are a billion and one recipes out there for chocolate cookies. Doesn’t mean to say I don’t need one on my blog though, does it? This is just a regular recipe but I adapted it by chance one day, substituting a bit of normal flour for some rice flour and it made a whole lot of difference.

I often have trouble with cookies. They are either too crunchy or too soft, almost like cake rather than a cookie. The rice flour seems to make them, ooooh, it’s difficult to describe..... sort of with a very fine crumble to them. Not the sort of crumble that falls apart all down your front though, the sort that waits until it’s well within the confines of your mouth before it crumbles. Effortlessly.
 

So here goes. For that effortless crumble, you will need:

100g soya margarine

50g caster sugar
Few drops of vanilla essence
2 tbsp cocoa powder
1 tbsp soya milk
50g self raising flour
1 tsp baking powder
75g rice flour

It’s simple from here on in. Take a mixing bowl and cream together the margarine and sugar. Stir in the vanilla essence and add the cocoa powder and soya milk here. This ensures that the cocoa powder gets thoroughly and evenly mixed in with the moist ingredients rather than being difficult to combine with the dry ingredients later on.

Once your cocoa powder is well mixed, add the baking powder and two types of flours and mix in thoroughly. It’s best to use your hands once the dough starts to form, as the fat in the dough will be warmed by your hands which help to bring it together nicely. I find I don’t even need a floured surface after this point. I just split the dough into 12 equal balls, then flatten them out in the palm of my hand and put onto a greased baking tray.

Bake in your oven, preheated to 170⁰C for about 15 minutes. Leave to cool on a wire rack before devouring. Or don’t.