Oh my, it’s been a long time since a Petits Chefs post, hasn’t it?
In-person cooking club came to a halt in March 2020. We had online cooking club right up until March 2024 at my school with a brief interlude into a baking club in Term 2 last year. I didn’t manage to write up all of those sessions (brain tumour wasn’t conducive to executive functioning and just wasn’t managing to keep on top of everything…) but… we’re back! Tentatively, because just like way back in 2010 when cooking club first started, we’re in a space that’s not really set up for cooking (actually even less than the previous iteration of the STEM lab) so I’m not sure how it’s going to go but willing to give it a try and I have 18 very keen little bakers who are excited to learn some new recipes!
This week, I couldn’t think of a better recipe to make than my mum’s chocolate chip cookies (we call them “Choc Bit Biscuits” in my house because chocolate chips are called “choc bits” in Australia and biscuits are what north Americans call cookies!).
Since mum died in January, my dad has been slowly learning to cook a few meals for himself. Mum was the best cook and baker and for the nearly 60 years they were married, Dad enjoyed 5-star food every day. All of a sudden, he found himself, well, fending for himself and so we’ve been working on a few different recipes together – including this one. Dad loves a biscuit with a cup of tea and was missing mum’s baking which he hadn’t had for many months so I offered to teach him how to make these biscuits over Zoom. He did a great job (his second time baking ever in his life, he reckons!) and we figured if dad could make them, the Petits Chefs could too!
We’re working with a space definitely NOT designed for cooking/ baking (there are very few electrical outlets and they are inconveniently located) and not *quite* enough equipment (I donated/ gave away a lot of things a few years ago) so it was a *bit* of a challenge, but we made it work!
(what you don’t see under here is the digital scale I taught the students to use – to make this a truly one bowl recipe!). I use this one at school and highly recommend it (<<< affiliate link but you should own a digital scale!)
And then the BEST BIT:
TWO kinds of chocolate chips (to replace the walnuts we can’t use at school but which are very essential to this recipe, according to both my mum and dad!).
Then we got scooping. Mum didn’t use a cookie scoop until a few years ago 9and she agreed with me that it was a game-changer)… The kids did ok here!
LOTS of focus on being a “bowl-holder” (this is actually really important as sometimes kids with beaters or cookie scoops forget to hold the bowl they are working with so when there are a bunch of kids, I always make sure someone is holding the bowl!)…
They did a great job!
For the baking part of the session, we had a minor mishap in that the pre-heated oven was turned off and then when I realised it, accidentally put the fan on HIGH which in a professional oven will heat it up really fast but also maybe heat it up a bit too fast so we had one tray of “very tanned” cookies!
But then some pretty perfect ones too!
With crispy, golden edges these were excellent!
Pam's Choc Bit Biscuits (Cookies)
The best chocolate chip cookies from my childhood.
Ingredients
- 113g (8 tablespoons, 1 stick) salted butter, soft at room temperature
- 1/4 cup (50g) white sugar
- 1/4 cup (50g) dark brown sugar
- 1 large egg, room temperature
- 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
- 1 cup (150g) all-purpose flour
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 1/2 cup (50g) walnut halves, chopped *
- 200g (1 cup) chocolate chips - I like to use half milk and half semisweet
Instructions
- Pre-heat oven to 350˚F.
- Line one large or two small baking trays with parchment paper.
- In a large bowl, cream the butter and sugars for a few minutes using an electric hand beater on high speed until smooth and creamy.
- Add the egg and vanilla and continue to mix until they are more or less incorporated (it might look curdled that’s ok!).
- Add the flour and the baking powder all at once and, starting with the beaters on low speed, mix until the flour is *just* incorporated.
- Add the walnuts and chocolate chips and beat on low speed until they are just mixed through the dough.
- Use a 1 1/2 tablespoon cookie scoop (or a small spoon) to measure out approx. 40g of dough and place on the baking tray a couple of inches apart.
- Bake at 350˚F for 12-14 minutes. They will still be a little soft to touch at this point and starting to get golden around the edges.
- Allow to cool on the tray for 5 minutes, then carefully lift the parchment with the biscuits on top and lay on the cooling rack. Allow to come to room temperature.
- Store in an airtight container.
Notes
* If not using walnuts, you can add an extra 1/4 cup chocolate chips.
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I know *every* household has their own version of a chocolate chip cookie but I think mum would be happy that 18 kids made these in just over an hour (and stretched the recipe to make 24 rather than 16 so that they would each get four – actually this helped with the baking time too because they were ready faster!).
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Bought high grade flour in error. Can I use in biscuit recipe
I sent you an email – can you clarify what you mean by “high grade”?