Raspberry Bakewell Cookies

I adapted this from Heston's recipe for chocolate chip cookies, a wonderful recipe that I came across on Kathryn's fabulous blog London Bakes - if you are yet to discover the delights of this blog, I urge you to take a look now... you'll soon be checking it every day!

I'm sure many of you took an intake of breath at the sight of both 'Heston' and 'adapted'... surely I'd never be bold enough to think I could better this genius? Well, no I don't, that'd be just a tad arrogant for someone so new to the blogging game, but I do think I can bring something different to the table and I would advise you to just make both if you're at all worried. For those still unconvinced, the essential method and ingredients are unchanged, it's only really a flavour tweak... so Heston's magic should still be intact.

Ingredients:

Makes about 20

Chocolate chips:

10g golden syrup

70ml double cream

65g white chocolate

Pinch of salt

Cookies:

220g plain flour

1/4 tsp bicarb

1/2 tsp baking powder

Large pinch salt (about 1/4 - 1/2 tsp, depending on your preference)

115g cold, cubed butter

260g caster sugar

1 large egg

1/2 tsp almond extract

50g frozen raspberries (keep them frozen until needed)

Method:

1. For the chocolate chips...
2. Melt the chocolate in a heatproof bowl over a pan of gently simmering water.
3. Meanwhile, gently heat the cream and syrup.
4. Once the chocolate's melted, add the salt to the cream/syrup and pour it very slowly into the melted chocolate (stirring all the time).
5. Pour this into a lined baking tray (a size that gives you about 1/2cm depth of chocolate mix), set aside for about an hour to cool, then freeze for at least 4 hours.
6. For the cookies...
7. Pre-heat the oven to 190 degrees c.
8. When the chocolate's almost ready (or later on if you want to make your chocolate chips in advance, they'll keep nicely in the freezer for a few days - or probably longer, but I've never had enough patience to wait that long!) you can make the cookie dough.
9. Cream the butter and sugar until light and fluffy.
10. Add the egg and almond extract and beat again until all combined.
11. Add all the other ingredients, except the raspberries, and beat until a dough is formed.
12. Take the chocolate chips out of the freezer and chop into small cubes.
13. Lightly crumble the frozen raspberries and add them, along with the chocolate chips, to the dough.
14. Mix briefly with a wooden spoon/beater to incorporate.
15. Use a spoon or ice cream scoop to spoon rough balls of dough onto a lined baking tray, you need to leave about a 2-3cm space around each cookie, each cookie containing about a large tbsp of dough. Flatten slightly and cook for 8-10 minutes until lightly golden, they will feel soft but this is correct, don't over cook them for much longer or they'll be really hard once cooled, this recipe should make lovely soft, slightly chewy cookies.