Why Everybody Needs An Apron, and an Easy Chocolate Chip Cookie Recipe

Whether you're four or forty four, there's nothing more pleasurable than shoving your hand in a bowl of sweet smelling, sticky cookie dough. 

This is why children need aprons.

Yes, I realise I should have rolled their sleeves up...

But why does everybody need an apron?

Surely as an adult you can keep yourself clean?

Hmm. Maybe. There are three reasons why I need an apron:

1. I have, erm, a large shelf on my front that collects drips and crumbs from whatever I'm eating, and I eat while I'm cooking... 
2. I have two children who enjoy baking, and cookie dough and Nutella will transfer from them to me, even though they deny touching anything with mucky hands.
3. These beauties, designed by Henry Holland and worn by yours truly, are available from Home Sense or online and are raising money for a good cause, for Comic Relief.
4. 
   

I now wear my apron from the second I start cooking, until I've loaded the dishwasher and washed up the bits that aren't allowed in it. It's no exaggeration to say that it has changed my life and saved my clothes.

Easy Chocolate Chip Cookie Recipe

Ingredients

125g Butter, at room temperature

100g Sugar (any soft brown sugar will do, you can even use caster)

1 Egg, beaten

1 tsp Vanilla Essence

225g Self Raising Flour (or Plain Flour with 1tsp Baking Powder)

200g Chocolate Chips

Method

1. Heat the oven to 160 fan.
2. Mix the butter and sugar with a wooden spoon (or your hands, if you're four).
3. Add the egg and vanilla essence, mix.
4. Add the flour, mix.
5. Add the chocolate chips (some may fall into your mouth at this stage).
6. Form the cookie dough into small balls by rolling a lump around in your hands.
7. Place on a baking tray, leaving room for the cookies to spread.
8. Bake for about 10 minutes until golden brown.

We decorated ours with Nutella and white chocolate stars, but you can use anything you fancy or just leave them plain. Either way, they won't last long.

Disclosure:

This is a sponsored post, although I will be giving my fee to Comic Relief for Red Nose day. The Comic Relief Danceathon is only one month away.

If you would like also to sponsor me for the Danceathon, that would be amazing. I will be dancing for six hours to raise money that really makes a #LastingChange.

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Why Everybody Needs An Apron, and an Easy Chocolate Chip Cookie Recipe

Baking with Baby Baby

I'm not known for my baking.

I'm the first to admit that I prefer cooking savoury dishes. Add to that Presley's fear of the food mixer* and you'll understand why we don't do that much baking together.

*I used to make a thick gravy for the boys by whizzing cooked vegetables into stock with my handheld food mixer. Yeah, I know, I said I'd never hide vegetables either, but I said a lot of things before I became a parent. Presley freaks out the second he hears me plug the mixer in. Most days when I tell him what's for tea he replies 'no noisy gravy'. It's okay, I still have pasta sauce that I can hide vegetables in (without making a noise).

Biscuits, on the other hand, require no food mixer. The children can join in with measuring out the ingredients and mixing with wooden spoons or little hands. They can watch their creations cook through the glass in the oven door. Then - the best bit - they can decorate them, with melted chocolate or icing and hundreds and thousands.

The other day we made gingerbread men.

As you can see they haven't quite got the hang of where to put the buttons. Oh and the one with a foot missing was Cash pressing down with the cutter before I was ready!

When they had cooled down we got out the icing tubes and started decorating. This is one of mine. Those icing tubes aren't the easiest things to use.

This is another one of mine, celebrating summer!

It was a family affair. Here is Andy's effort. 

Nope, me neither. He was particularly proud of the stockings though.

Here are the finished gingerbread men from all of us.

I think the boys did really well with theirs!

What's that you say? English Mum's having a bake-off? Oh well, I'll have to enter with these fine fellows!

***

I wonder if there's a prize for the worst entry?

Yes, it's a cupcake.

Like I said, I'm not known for my baking!

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Baking with Baby Baby

I Can't Cook!

This is probably the last post I'll ever write about cooking with toddlers. I'm beginning to feel like a hapless home maker.

Of course if you would like me to carry on admitting to Sandy' kitchen nightmares, just to make you feel better about your kitchen prowess, then I'm sure I have more tasty treats in my repertoire!

So today's attempt at being a domestic goddess was Chocolate Cornflake Cakes.

Simple?

I expect it would be if I had bothered to Google the recipe.

I thought I knew how to make them, after all it's so easy a child could do it, right?

Wrong.

I melted butter and golden syrup in a pan and added cocoa powder.

I took the bowl over to where my willing assistants (Presley and Cash) were waiting, wooden spoons at the ready.

I reached for the cornflakes. There were 17 in the packet.

In they went to the chocolatey mixture.

Hmm, we needed more cereal.

Et voila, Chocolate Sultana Bran Cakes:

And no, they didn't set.

They were however a darn sight tastier than the jam vol-au-vents!

I Can't Cook!

The Baby Baby Baking Masterclass

I believe it was Delia Smith who said 'life's too short to make pastry' (probably), so yesterday I bought some ready-to-roll pastry to make a steak pie.

There was going to be plenty left over so this afternoon I decided to go all domesticated and bake some jam tarts with Presley.

He 'helped' flour the worktop and rolling pin (and his hands, hair, clothes, Jessie cat and his chair). We rolled out the pastry and cut out a dozen circles. We placed six of them on a baking tray. Next Presley painted the edges of the circles (mainly) with milk. We then cut smaller circles out of the remaining original circles.

Still with me?

We took the rings of pastry and laid them on the top of the milky circles on the baking tray. We then popped a blob of jam in each small circle - as seen on Big Cook Little Cook (oh how carefully I typed that)!

That's all there is to it. Presley and I sat and watched the oven expectantly.

We weren't expecting this:

Can you work out the flaw in my otherwise cunning culinary plan?

That's right. I used puff pastry. Oops!

Jam vol-au-vent anyone?

The Baby Baby Baking Masterclass