Cooking Cookies with Anna

This afternoon, while the younger two napped after a busy morning, Anna and I made chocolate chip cookies. Actually, we made a half-batch of choc chip cookies, and a half-batch of M&M cookies. They were delicious, but even better was the special Mother-Daughter time in the kitchen.Of course the best bit about cooking together is licking the spoon afterwards!The finished product:Our recipe is based upon one from The Children's Step-by-step Cook Book by Angela Wilkes, published by Dorling Kindersley. (Kind thanks to Granny who bought this book for our kids.)

Ingredients:
115g (4 oz) softened butter
70g (2 1/2 oz) caster sugar
70g (2 1/2 oz) soft brown sugar
1 egg
1 tsp vanilla extract (or essence if you can't find extract)
140g (5 oz) plain flour (we use plain wholemeal flour)
70g (2 1/2 oz) oat bran
1 tsp bicarbonate of soda
175g (6 oz) dark chocolate chips (or M&M Baking Bits)

Instructions:
1. Set the oven to 190C. Beat the butter with both lots of sugar in a mixing bowl until creamy.
2. Break the egg into a cup, then pour into the bowl and beat it into the mixture until smooth. Then add the vanilla extract and mix it in.
3. Add the flour, oat bran and bicarbonate of soda to the mixture, and stir everything together well.
4. Now add the chocolate chips (or M&M Baking Bits) and stir them in until they are evenly spread through the cookie mixture.
5. Place baking paper on metal baking trays and butter the paper. Spoon small mounds of the cookie mixture on to the trays, leaving quite big spaces between the mounds.
6. Bake the cookies for 10-12 minutes until they are an even golden brown colour, then use the baking paper to slide them on to a wire rack to cool, although these cookies are also delicious eaten still warm from the oven.