Sometimes only chocolate will do!  As you’re probably beginning to realise from the number of recipes involving chocolate on my blog, this is one of my mantras in life!  This was especially true yesterday.  First day back at work after a 17 day break sometimes I love being a teacher!  and it had been a bit of a shock to the system, I was absolutely shattered by the time I got home.  After a barbecue for dinner cooked by lovely husband I felt the need to get into the kitchen and attack some cooking!  Now, when I’m in an attacking mood it’s not a good time to cook something delicate or something that needs lots of ingredients – far better to cook an old favourite that I can just throw together in a bowl without really paying much attention to the numbers on the weighing scales.  The beauty of this recipe is that it’s very forgiving; it doesn’t seem to matter if you’re a bit over here and a bit under there.  It always just seems to work – which was a good job yesterday as I needed to create and create fast!

You will need: 50g butter, 45g peanut butter, 50g caster sugar, 45g brown sugar, 100g plain flour, 10g baking powder, 1 egg, 50g chocolate chips.

Grease a couple of baking trays and preheat the oven to 180°C (350°F, Gas Mark 4).  Cream together the sugar, butter and peanut butter.  Mix in the flour and baking powder, followed by the whisked egg.  It may take a little while to come together, but it will!  Mix in the chocolate chips and form the dough into a ball.  Rip off little balls and place onto the baking tray, slightly flattening them as you put them on.  Leave plenty of room between each cookie as they will spread out quite a lot when they cook.  Put in the oven for about 25 minutes or until golden brown.

At this point you should find something to do while you wait for them to cook.  Unfortunately, as I was so tired I wasn’t thinking straight, and decided that this would be a really good time to run an errand.  Fortunately, I remembered to set the timer on the oven and my husband took them out at jut the right moment!  He left them on the tray to cool (I normally transfer them onto a wire rack) and they were more crispy on the base as a result.   They were great with some mint-choc-chip ice-cream for dessert this evening.   Yum!