White chocolate raspberry cookies

I have a certain feeling for snow.

When you wake up to this; you can’t help but feel like it’s Christmas.

On Saturday afternoon the snow started dancing in the lights of Leicester Square. We chuckled at the sight of everyone panic buying- and then ducked into Tesco and made sure we had enough food to last us til spring.

Like the washing up at the end of Christmas lunch, the initial excitement of the bounty has now mellowed and what we’re left with is dreckish puddles.

People are now talking in supermarket queues in hushed tones about the worries of ‘black ice’.

Things are moving feebly. This is not a city that copes well with ‘weather incidents’.

It’s bitter and grey outside.  I  just want to huddle by the warmth of my oven, and bake something sweet.

These cookies come from a place of proper, lasting snow. We were first made them by our chalet girl when we were gadding about in France (if there’s a worse term in the colloquial English language than ‘chalet girl’, I don’t know of it).

If anyone wondered what hedonism looks like, it’s trudging in from a day scooting about in powder and finding a plate of freshly baked cookies waiting for you .

And beyond that lives insane indulgence; it’s when you don’t even bother to go out (maybe the weather’s a little grim and your ankle’s a bit sore – perhaps you took a tumble after too many beers on an apres dance floor). Then all that’s left for you to do is sit by a fire with a book and demolish far, far too many cookies.

It also means that you get to snoop on how the cookies are made.

These are cookies that are similarly easy to make and eat.

The Hungry One has been on a quest for a cookie for years that had ‘chew’. I mused and chuckled over it, until I found one. And now I’m proud to share it.

His version of ‘chew’ derives from the elasticity of the condensed milk and a short baking time. They pull lightly at your teeth when you eat them and are pliable enough to hold a scoop of ice cream in a sandwich.

The flavour combination of chocolate and raspberry is gleeful. It’s sickeningly sweet, with a twinge of brightness. Essentially it’s ‘High School Musical’ in your mouth. You could substitute dark chocolate and blackberries if you liked, but you might miss some of the good cheer.

These cookies are the  perfect antidote to minor disappointments in life, whether it’s a twisted ankle, your blog disappearing for a few short stints (apologies about that….) or pristine white snow, slowly turning to slush.


White chocolate raspberry cookies

Makes 24 or so cookies

Equipment
1 electric whisk/ Kitchen Aid, 1 bowl. 1 baking tray lined with baking paper.

Shopping/foraging

115  grams butter, softened
115 grams caster sugar
85 g sweetened condensed milk
175 g self raising flour
Pinch of salt
50 g white chocolate, chopped into chunks
80 g raspberries- fresh or frozen

Here’s how we roll

1.Preheat oven 180 C and line 2 baking trays with greaseproof paper (or line one and be prepared to freeze half the mixture)

2. Cream the butter and sugar together until pale then stir in condensed milk.

3. Sift in the flour, salt drop in the raspberries and chocolate chunks and work it into a soft dough- the raspberries will ripple through the dough.

4. Take a pinch of dough and roll it into a ball the size of a fat  date.

5. Place the cookies a baking tray with 5 cm between each cookie. Bake for 15 minutes until golden brown but a little soft. When they’ve cooled slightly transfer to a cooling rack.

6. Eat on their own, with a cup of tea, or make ice cream sandwiches out of them.