The Best Chocolate Chip Cookies On This Side Of The Pond

As an American, I take my cookies pretty seriously. John must have known this because when we were first dating in Oxford, he wooed me with a Ben's Cookie (which, in case you've never had one, are so magical, they're sold by weight). Direct line to my heart.

I'll never forget the moment when I first arrived in the UK and ordered a cookie at a coffee shop: it looked so appetizing in the glass cake stand. So soft, gooey, and chocolatey. Imagine my disappointment when I broke it in half to reveal its actual, true crumbly, flour-y, crunchy state. I had been deceived. By a cookie.

So, I tried to make my own. But for some reason, every recipe I followed that promised "soft, chewy, American-style" cookies also proved to be disappointing. In the oven, they looked great, but would deflate into flat, sad saucers with crunchy edges as soon as I removed them.

It wasn't until I stumbled upon this recipe from the Toblerone website that I finally found my cookie making mojo and could hold my head high again. I've made these cookies for friends and for the office, and they've been fail-safe successes both times. I'm posting the original recipe here, but I adapt it a little when I make it, so I'll let you know what those adjustments are at the end. Obviously, you can substitute the Toblerone chocolate for ANY kind of chocolate you'd like (I just used a bar of Cadbury Dairy Milk in my last batch).

TOBLERONE COOKIES (from the Toblerone website)

Makes 12 cookies (NB I make mine slightly smaller, so I get around 15 out of this)

What you'll need:

75g butter or margarine

75g granulated sugar

75g light muscavado sugar

1 egg

175g self-raising flour

100g bar milk Toblerone, roughly chopped

Method:

1. Lightly grease 2 baking sheets (I don't bother with the greasing, because I have a fantastic baking sheet from John Lewis that is non-stick). Heat oven to 180 degrees C, 350 degrees F, Gas Mark 4.

2. Cream the butter and sugars together until light and fluffy, then beat in the egg.

3. Fold in the flour and Toblerone pieces. Place large teaspoons of the mixture on the baking sheets, allowing room for them to spread. Bake for 12-15 minutes.

4. Cool on the baking sheets for a couple of minutes before transferring to a wire rack to finish cooling. The cookies can be eaten warm or cold.

So, the changes I've made to the recipe are:

1. Use only half the quantity of light muscavado sugar that the recipe calls for and replace the other half with dark brown sugar. Trust me, it makes a difference.

2. Bake only for 8 minutes (especially if you're making them slightly smaller, like mine are). If you're baking them for 12-15 minutes, or even 10 minutes, they'll be severely overdone. I take mine out as soon as I see the hint of golden brown appearing on the top (I have a fan oven, so this may make a difference).

Enjoy. And if you're American, freak out the Brits by warming two cookies and putting a generous dollop of vanilla ice cream in the middle for an ice-cream sandwich. Consume as if it's a normal, every-day dessert (or if you want to be really daring, a snack) for you.