Sannie Smit’s Chocolate Chip Cookies

Sannie Smit’s Chocolate Chip Cookies? Whaaat? I thought that lady was the local meat expert. Yes, she is. And nope, this cookie does not contain meat. Or biltong chips. It is a classic American-style chocolate chip cookie from Sannie Smit & Margaret Fulton’s new book “The A-Z of Food & Cookery in South Africa”. No strings attached –  just a really good, soft, chewy, chocolate chip cookie. I just added double the amount of chocolate, to put my own little indulgent stamp on it.

So get yourself a glass of cold full-cream milk and start baking.

Ingredients:

• 125 g butter
• 50 ml tightly packed brown sugar
• 125 ml (1/2 cup) white sugar
• 1 egg
• 1 teaspoon vanilla essence
• 300 ml cake flour
• 1 ml baking soda (bicarbonate of soda)
• 2.5 ml salt (half a teaspoon)
• 100 g chocolate chips (I use 2 x 100 g dark chocolate slabs, roughly chopped!)

Method: (makes about 36 small cookies or 18 large)

1. Pre-heat oven to 180 degrees Celsius. Grease a baking tray.
2. In an electric mixer, cream butter and both sugars untill light and fluffy.
3. Add egg and vanilla and beat well.
4. Sift flour, baking soda and salt together. Stir into wet mixture.
5. Stir in chocolate chips or chopped chocolate.
6. Drop teaspoonsful onto a greased baking tray,  leaving room for spreading. (I use a small ice cream scoop to create perfectly round domes, but a teaspoon works fine)
7. Bake for 10 minutes (small cookies) or 14 minutes (large cookies).
8. Remove from oven and leave to cool on baking tray for a few minutes, before removing and cooling further on wire racks.