Cooking Club - Walnut & Chocolate Chip Cookies

DonnieScribbles

Hope it's okay to start with a baking recipe not a dinner
I'm going with these because they're the last thing I made that went down well with people who turned up and ate them...

Walnut and Chocolate Chip Cookies

Ingredients:
110g margarine
70ml Agave syrup*
1tsp vanilla essence
1 heaped tsp molasses
200g plain flour
50g oats
1/2 tsp bicarbonate of soda
1/2 tsp salt
40g walnuts, broken up (they're very brittle, easy to break)
50g chocolate chips

* the agave could be substituted for 120g brown sugar if necessary. Agave is fairly pricey. Tis good stuff though.
OR: half and half 60g sugar and 40ml agave.

Method:
- In a large mixing bowl, beat the agave and margarine together till blended.
- Add the molasses and vanilla essence and mix in.
- Separately, sift together the flour, salt and bicarbonate of soda. Add this to the margarine mixture along with the oats, chocolate chips and walnuts. Combine to form a quite sticky dough.
- Use your hands to form the dough into patties then place on a greased tray. If the dough is too sticky to handle add a little more flour. Should be fine though.
- Bake at 180 degrees for 20 minutes.

You could use any nuts you like, but walnuts are particularly nice!

I made these vegan and if anyone else is planning to do the same you could use these:



They're in Tesco for just over a euro and from the ingredients they appear to be vegan. Considering the dairy free chocolate chips you can get in health food shops can be €3-4, I thought it'd be worth mentioning!

This recipe makes about 8 decent sized cookies, but you could easily double the quantities if you wanted. I just made a small amount because I only have the one tray to bake them on :P

I have pictures but my internet can't seem to handle uploading at the moment. Probably because it's raining. Seems to work this way...

Anyway, hope ye like them!

These sound gorgeous!!!!
I won't get a chance to make them until the weekend, but I'm really looking forward to trying them out.
I find dark chocolate is nicer in baking, so thanks for the tip off on the chips

Magic Monkey

I'm stealing this tips from another thread in case anyone might find them useful.
Thanks Magic Monkey!

Magic Monkey wrote: »

To get them crunchy and round:

• Use butter straight from the fridge, cut into small cubes; this'll make it easier to cream in the stand mixer. If doing it by hand, use room temperature butter. The butter shouldn't be soft to the touch
• Once mixed, refrigerate mixture for 30 mins
• Get a trigger-action ice-cream scoop to make even size cookie balls, or roll them by hand. Make them into golf ball sizes. The more round-shaped they are now, the more round they'll turn out once baked
• Refrigerate cookie dough balls for a further 45 mins
• Bake, straight from the fridge, in a pre-heated oven on the lowest shelf @ 190c for 10-12 minutes. Get an oven thermometer to make sure the temperature is accurate, they're under a tenner and you can just leave it in there all the time

Cookie dough keeps for 3 days in the fridge, and improves the longer it's refrigerated. You can also roll it into a log and freeze it, so when you need to use it just thaw it for 20-30 mins then slice into thick rounds and bake.

Tar.Aldarion

Sounds good if I get the time to get the ingredients. Would love to give it a shot. haven't made cookies in like 4/5 years!

henryporter

Definitely one for the weekend - only allowed goodies then! You're right about the agave syrup too Donnie, tis mighty tack altogether.

DonnieScribbles

Oh, I thought of other things...

Before I started using those choc chips I used to chop up regular dark chocolate and put the bits in the freezer for an hour or two before baking so they don't melt so much. Makes for a very rich cookie if anyone wants to try that!

Also, after getting through that last batch I think the best method is half and half sugar to agave (60g to 40ml). I've made it all three ways and this was the best, but whichever is easiest I suppose.

And this is what they looked like last time

sweet-rasmus

DonnieScribbles wrote: »

Before I started using those choc chips I used to chop up regular dark chocolate and put the bits in the freezer for an hour or two before baking so they don't melt so much.

BRILLIANT idea. The melting chocolate is always a messy issue!

DonnieScribbles

Yeah, it doesn't combat the melting completely but it certainly helps! Perhaps if I just froze them longer, not sure...

I want these for tomorrow....are they better eaten on the day of baking?
Or would I get away with making them today?

DonnieScribbles

I think they are better on the day they're made, but they'll taste fine the next day too. Just keep them in an airtight container or what not!

I made them again yesterday and added a bit of cocoa powder to them and ended up with crumbs I have learned from this!

Tar.Aldarion

Bump! Anybody else try these? I'm thinking of doing it now since I have finished my exams or starting a new thread to see can we keep this going.

Oooh ingredient time!

DonnieScribbles

Yay

I've been churning these out on a regular basis since posting that recipe and have decided that the 120g of sugar works better than agave. The mixture is drier and a bit harder to handle but they bake really chewy.

Sooo many cookies recently.....

Tar.Aldarion

Oh good cos then I don't have to buy that!

DonnieScribbles

Yeah, tis the better part of a fiver too so you'll make a saving! It's fun to mess around with though and somewhat healthier than sugar.
But sugar is cheap

Tar.Aldarion

Yeah I'm not going to be thinking which is the healtier glucose when I'm eating it anyway
Mmm sugar! Toffee popcorn making time

I just made these today. I have a diabetic in the house, so I try avoid sweet things.
I made them for my friend, who is always pitying my cooking skills. And trying to help me improve.
She said they were savage! Score!

My dad stole the last one though. gRRR!

It my cooking club next, but my laptop is still dodge. So it will be a week or two.

Tar.Aldarion

Ok cool, look forward to it!

DonnieScribbles

Yay, glad they turned out well for you Moonbaby!

Cookie win :pac:

pq0n1ct4ve8zf5

Heading home to (amongst other things) a fully functional oven tomorrow, so I might give these a bash! Must text the mammy and tell her to get molasses, should have everything else though. I'll report back

Kasen Squeaking Zipper

Kasen Squeaking Zipper wrote: »

Heading home to (amongst other things) a fully functional oven tomorrow, so I might give these a bash! Must text the mammy and tell her to get molasses, should have everything else though. I'll report back

The healthfood shop was way cheaper for molasses than the supermarkets.
Good nyomage!

Seren_

Ooh, I'm definitely going to try make these! They sound yummy. Although before this my only knowledge of molasses was that my dad uses it to help ferment grass to make silage

Tar.Aldarion

Troops rallied.

*dusts hands*

Tar.Aldarion

Tar.Aldarion wrote: »

Troops rallied.

*dusts hands*

I read this as trolls rallied.
And I was so upset that people would disrespect the sharing of the cookies so.

/facepalm