NOT PALEO - CHOCOLATE CHIP COOKIES

This idea has been floating around in my brain ever since I posted my Banana Bread photograph on flickr and over the weekend I setup my micro studio (an IKEA cutting board and blanket for backdrop) to start shooting. I found a recipe for chewy cookies and decided on a half batch (because cheat day only comes once a week) then got down to shooting, in case you can't follow along with the photos I've reposted the recipe below:

Ingredients

Serves: 9

• 125g plain flour
• 1/2 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 85g unsalted butter, melted
• 150g brown soft sugar
• 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
• 1 egg
• 1 egg yolk
• 150g chocolate chunks

Preparation method

Prep: 10 mins |Cook: 15 mins

1. Preheat the oven to 170 C / Gas mark 3. Grease baking trays or line with parchment.

2. Sift together the flour, bicarb and salt; set aside.

3. In a medium bowl, cream together the melted butter, brown sugar and caster sugar until well blended. Beat in the vanilla, egg and egg yolk until light and creamy. Mix in the sifted ingredients until just blended. Stir in the chocolate chips by hand using a wooden spoon. Drop cookie dough onto the prepared baking trays, with each cookie around 4 tablespoons of dough (for smaller cookies, drop 1 rounded tablespoonful and adjust baking time as necessary). Do not flatten the dough. Cookies should be about 8cm apart.

4. Bake for 15 to 17 minutes in the preheated oven, or until the edges are lightly toasted. Cool on baking trays for a few minutes before transferring to wire racks to cool completely.

MY BIRTHDAY 2012

This year has been a gastronomic extravaganza! Cookies, Coffee, Cinnamon Buns, Cheesecake!

I've never been a huge birthday guy but I'm turning the grand out age of 24 and a lot of 'stuff' has fallen into place nicely! I had some good news at work, got a Nexus 7 and a nice shiny new laptop to play with all weekend. It made up for the huge amount of driving I've been doing recently.

On Friday night after a good tennis session I returned home to a plate of freshly baked chocolate coffee cookies care of Hannah and a batch of cinnamon buns ready to be put in the oven on Saturday morning which left the house smelling of sugary sweet cinnamon. Amazing!

On Saturday we made our usual trip to Seasons for a coffee followed by a walk with Eggs and relaxed afternoon watching the Olympics whilst enjoying our baked goods. On Sunday I awoke the most amazing present - a Chemex! I've got a Presso, Aeropress and Gaggia Classic and I've wanted to add a Chemex to that list for a while. Now I have! I think this should be the start of a tradition - A coffee themed gift for every Christmas and Birthday.

On Sunday afternoon we headed to my parents for a lovely meal of including champagne, fajitas and my mother's famous chocolate cheesecake. To top the afternoon off Andy Murray made Federer look a little silly to get us some gold and my Mum made some chocolate vanilla cupcakes

Did I also mention my parents got me two tickets for the Harry Potter studio tour? Yeah, a good birthday!