Lime Lattice Cookies

Another recipe from Mary Berry's Baking Bible this time it's "Lime Lattice Cookies" and to all intent and purpose it looks like it's going to be another delicate biscuit/cookie.  I am not doubling up on this recipe.

So this is what the mixture looks like!  A very simple mixture of sugar, butter, flour and lime zest.  When I brought it together I admit I did deviate from the recipe a little bit - the whole thing just wasn't binding together so I added a dessert spoon of tepid water and that seemed to bring it together enough that I could handle it without it crumbling.

I made 16 equal sized balls of dough (and one very small ball that I ate as a taster when it was baked).  Though the recipe instructed use of a skewer to make the lattice pattern the skewer I used was too thick so I ended up using the very end of a clean chopstick - that seemed to work to my satisfaction.

They didn't spread in the oven (but then they don't contain any egg).  After just 12 minutes they started to turn a pale golden colour and the kitchen started to smell of lime zest (very refreshing).  After 15 minutes I took them out of the oven and put them on a tray to cool, they were very soft, delicate and crumbly.

The finished article.  They are melt-in-the-mouth soft and have more of a scent of lime than a taste.  Hopefully they will like them at work.

Chocolate Chip Cookies

Believe it or not, I have never baked "Chocolate Chip Cookies" before so this was a new experience for me.

Using the recipe found in Mary Berry's Baking Bible (which I almost followed to the letter), I produced a double batch of rather large chocolate chip cookies which were nice and chocolaty as well as being chewy and gooey in the middle.  I would have liked them to be more gooey but as they spread rather a lot (egg does this to biscuit mixes) the gooey centre was only going to be a little bit so.


This is what they looked like when I managed to get them mostly into equal sized balls on the baking tray - they were a little larger than the recipe recommended so they took 14-15 minutes to bake in the centre of the oven rather than the 8-10 suggested.

When they were in the oven they started to spread and I was able to see that they were more like the 'Millys' giant cookies you can buy in the shopping centre rather than the small delicate ones the recipe was guiding you to make.  That said the way they spread looked really artistic (wish I had filmed it).

When they were finished I cooled them on a baking tray before cramming as many as I could into a tin to take to work.

Overall I am rather impressed with my first foray into baking "Chocolate Chip Cookies".  I will add that particular recipe to my repertoire and try it again some time, perhaps using different chocolate.

My Reasons

A few months ago I decided that while baking for 'fun' was really good, I should actually try and get something out of it.  For years I have been baking the recipes that I know; chocolate fudge cake, coconut crunch, chocolate coconut bars, flapjacks and sugar cookies at Christmas. 

After watching The Great British Bake Off for the last two years I came to a decision - I wanted to be like them.  With that in my mind I set about writing my Christmas list and asked for nothing but cookery books and baking implements.  Luckily the family listened and with 2 more sandwich tins with loose bottoms (I already had several but wanted more), five cookery books (only one wasn't baking oriented) and a new mandolin (which I am going to slowly get up the courage to use) I set about baking things I had never baked before - mostly guided by Mary Berry.

Here is my slow but steady journey.