It’s been baking mayhem in my kitchen these past few weeks.I’ve been testing out scores of recipes from breads, pastries,tarts and cookies of course.While  most of this has been work related,I decided that I would treat myself to  a nice,warm and gooey cookie.And the reason I say for myself is ,when I bake up stuff for the test kitchen,I barely ever land up eating the baked goods.Most often they are packed off to family and friends and a small sampler kept aside for the dear hubs who is ever willing to sample and indulge in my baking.

I had actually started off on another post which is related to a recent getaway to a vineyard located a couple of hours from  Mumbai.This post was written up in the middle of the baking mania as was just too excited to share one of my favourite cookie recipe’s with you.

Oh  I do have a soft spot for Cookies of course and especially these gorgeous one’s which are loaded with chocolate chips and some walnuts that add a nice bite to them.I love the addition of nuts  when baking cookies.I feel they make the cookie more complete and add a nice texture to it as well. These are fairly easy and quick to bake up.If at any time you feel that the cookie dough seems soft,just refrigerate the dough for about 2o minutes before laying them on a baking tray.These bake really fast so do keep an eye on them to prevent them from burning.

Happy Baking!

Chocolate Chip & Walnut Cookies (Makes 24) 

INGREDIENTS: 

* 1 cup butter (softened)

* 1 cup white sugar

* 1 cup packed brown sugar

* 2 eggs(at room temperature)

* 2 tsp. vanilla extract

* 3 cups All Purpose Flour

* 1 tsp. baking soda

* 2 tsp. hot water

* ½ tsp. salt

* 2 cups semi -sweet chocolate chips

* 1 cup chopped walnuts

DIRECTIONS:

1. Preheat the oven to 175 C

2. Cream together the butter, white sugar and brown sugar till smooth and fluffy.

3. Beat in the eggs one at a time.

4. Add in the vanilla extract.

5. Dissolve the baking soda in hot water and add it to the batter.

6. Stir in the flour, chocolate chips and walnuts.

7. Drop by large spoonful’s onto an ungreased pan.

8. Bake for 10 minutes.

9. Take them out when done. Leave on the pan for a couple of minutes and then transfer onto a wire rack to cool.

TIPS WHILE BAKING COOKIES:

* Always make sure eggs, butter; flour etc. are at room temperature.

* You could use a small ice cream scoop to drop the batter onto the pan, if not a regular spoon is fine.