Afternoon treats

When I was younger my favourite thing was to come home to was the smell of freshly baked biscuits. So fresh that you bite into them and they are still warm in the centre. The best was when they were chocolate chip - my absolute favourite. They smell delicious, and when they are fresh from the oven all of the chocolate is still soft and beautiful! I thought today I would share with you my favourite recipe for chocolate chip biscuits.

You will need:

• 1 1/2 cups of plain flour
• 1/4 teaspoon bicarbonate soda
• 125 grams of butter
• 1/2 cups of white sugar
• 1 egg
• 1 teaspoon vanilla essence
• Milk chocolate chips
• White chocolate chips

Step 1:
Preheat your over to 180 degrees Celsius.

Step 2:
Sift the flour and bicarb soda into a bowl and set aside

Step 3:
Cream butter and sugars together. You will know when to stop when the mixture is light and fluffy.

Step 4:
Add the egg and the vanilla essence to the mixture, and beat well.

Step 5:
Stir in the flour and soda you sifted earlier, and then add the chocolate bits - see tips at the end to find out the amount of chocolate chips I use.

Step 6:
Put baking paper on an over tray, and place even amounts of biscuit mix onto the tray. Don't roll the mixture into balls, it tastes better if it isn't heavily handled, it just looks a bit more rustic!

Step 7:
Bake in the oven for 12-15 minutes, until golden on top

Step 8:
Cool on a wire rack and then eat!!

Tips

• Make sure you take the butter out of the fridge at least 45 minutes before you start to bake, it makes the butter a lot easier to work with. 
• Sometimes if the mixture is taking too long to creme, then add the egg anyway, it will make the mixture lighter, and can sometimes help it to creme. However do not give up easily! Only do this if you feel as though it has been in the mixture for ages and no change is occurring. 
• You can use a the mixer rather then stirring in the flour - I suggest you do, it's so much better at ensuring all the flour is mixed in. But make sure you stir it in roughly first, otherwise when you turn the mixer on the flour will go everywhere! 
• Usually when I make this I use Nestle Choc Bits, and use both white and milk chocolate, but you can use just one type, or dark chocolate if you wish as well. Usually I just pour chocolate in until it looks like enough. This is 1/2-3/4 of each packet (I think the packets I usually use are 250g each). This can be changed to taste though, I know some recipes say to only use a total of 100g of chocolate.
• If you want to be extra fancy you can put leftover chocolate chips on the top of the biscuits, this looks really good

The Perfect Breakfast

Every Sunday morning my family will wake up and my Dad will make us all breakfast before I have to go to work. Every Sunday we have the same thing - French Toast. There is not many things I like more then French Toast, all of the egg in a beautiful piece of bread - delicious!

French toast is really simple to make. All you will need is

• Sliced bread
• Milk
• Eggs
• Salt and Pepper

Use an egg for each person you're cooking for, and about 1/4 of a cup of milk per egg.

Step 1:

Whisk the eggs and milk together and put in some ground salt and pepper.

Step 2:

Put the desired amount of bread into a large dish (I usually use a casserole dish) and pour the egg mixture over the bread. Ensure all the bread is covered in egg. Turn the bread over after half the mixture is poured to get the desired coverage.

Step 3:

Cook in a fry pan until golden.

French Toast isn't really difficult to make, but there are a few secrets that will make all the difference to your breakfast.

Secret 1 - the bread

Using just your normal bread from the supermarket will be ok, but it won't be as good as it could be. Using sourdough or a heavier bread like this will make the meal so much better. Make sure you don't slice it too thick though - slices about 1-1.5cm thick will be perfect. The bread doesn't need to be fresh, it could be left over from lunch a few days before. Just make sure it isn't too far gone or it won't be very nice. 

Secret 2 - soaking the bread

The longer you leave the bread to soak the nicer it will be. This is particularly important if you use a bread like sourdough, where the egg needs longer to make it to the whole way through the bread. My advice, make the mixture and pour it over the bread, and then go make a coffee or have a shower or something. After you're ready come back and cook it, and it will be delicious.