Chocolate Chip Cookes (and an update on the mixmaster saga)

Yes, I realise that Chocolate Chip Cookies are not cupcakes, but I'm pretty sure I never said this blog would only ever be about cupcakes. I resorted to cookies (and they are a cookie, not a biscuit), and to this old faithful recipe, after my industrial strength mixer went to mixer heaven (which it turns out is a little shop hidden behind the main street in Dickson, ACT).

Let's start with the mixer story. My delightful mother gave me a lovely strong mixer as a housewarming present when we moved to our new house in September. It has served me faithfully since then, until about a month ago when it started to struggle with anything thicker than cream. This meant that coldish butter was a problem, cake mix a bit of a struggle, and pasta dough? Well, that was what finally brought about it's demise.

I rang the manufacturer, who said to take it to their designated repairer (see mixer heaven, above). A friend of mine that works in fair trading said that I could have taken it back to the place of purchase for them to assess whether it needed fixing or replacing, even though that retailer's warranty documents said to go to the manufacturer first. Good to know for next time.

When I rang the repair guy a week later, I was told by a rather gruff sounding woman that there was only one person working in the shop at the moment, and they hadn't even looked at it. Another call yesterday, almost another week later, and we (I made M make the call...I was too scared of the gruff lady) were told that it definitely needed replacing, and the order for the replacement would go out tomorrow (which is today, now). So hopefully I'll have a new mixer soon, because my $18 hand mixer from Woolworths just doesn't cut it for pretty much anything.

Back to the cookies. I've been making this recipe since I was about 10. It was my go-to recipe when I wanted to make something yummy and quick, but somehow I forgot about it. I don't think I've made these for about 5 years. Even though you start with creaming butter and sugar, I've done it by hand with this recipe before and got a more than satisfactory result.

dark chocolate chips

This time I decided to mix up the dough, then put dark chocolate chips in half, and white chocolate chips and macadamias into the other half. I remembered the dough making lots and lots of cookies, and was sure that these are about the same size as I used to make them; it's since dawned on me that I never made a single batch, it was always a double quantity. Oh well, it's a good excuse to make another batch soon.

I think the white chocolate ones might be my favourite, so I'm a little disappointed that I wasn't very careful in my halving of the dough so I ended up with less of these than the dark chocolate ones. I suspect it's because the chocolate chips I used were much darker than I used to. Maybe I used milk chocolate chips previously? Or maybe it's just because the choc chips I have a the moment are real, good quality chocolate, rather than compound 'choc bits'.

white chocolate and macadamia

Also, in my memory, this recipe made a lot more cookies than I made yesterday. They were about the same size as I recalled, so I wasn't sure what was going on, but in the middle of the night, it occurred to me that I'd never made a single batch of dough before. Every time I've made this recipe, it's been a double quantity. Never mind, it's a good excuse to make some more soon. Also, the kids don't really like them - dark chocolate is too dark, I think, and white chocolate is not something they're really familiar with. Hooray! More for me!! (don't worry, they're not going to be neglected...!)

Credit where credit's due: I have no idea where this recipe came from in the beginning. But if you want it, let me know!