Gifting food to beat the January blues

It has come to that time of the year again. Christmas is over and the post-Christmas blues are settling over the land. It doesn't help that the weather is still miserable. As a foodie and a blogger my least favourite aspect of this time of year is the annual January diet that everyone is on after the festivities just past. There is a general feeling that one must forgo all sweets and treats and as someone who likes to bake and share treats I  intensely dislike it. So how can you continue to bake and share these goodies with friends and family at this time of year. How about a moderation approach in the form of some for now, some for later?!

What am I talking about? Let me show you...

The gift in the back in a frozen roll of the cookie dough for these delicious peanut-butter chocolate chip cookies. So you can gift a friend, or yourself, with a few cookies to eat now and a frozen dough to bake at a later date (2-3 months if wrapped properly). If gifting to a friend it's important to write the date and some cooking instructions on your wrapping. I double wrapped the dough in cling film and then followed up with greaseproof paper with a little red ribbon for decoration.

So now let me tell you about this cookie recipe. These peanut-butter chocolate chip cookies have organic peanut-butter and 70% dark chocolate chips. So while they couldn't be considered healthy they are not half as unhealthy as store bought cookie dough.

Peanut-butter chocolate chip cookies

150g Unsalted Butter
70g Organic Peanut Butter
140g Muscovado sugar
140g Caster sugar
340g Bread flour
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp Salt
1 egg + one egg yolk
30ml milk
1 tsp vanilla extract
50g 70% Dark Chocolate chips

1. Melt together the butter and peanut butter in a saucepan

2. Pour in a bowl with the sugars and beat together.

3. In seperate bowls beat together the eggs, milk and vanilla extract and in another bowl the flour,
    soda and salt.

4. Alternate additions of the egg and the flour mixtures and beat to combine. This should form a
    thick dough, with a somewhat fudgy consistency.

5. When the dough is cool add the chocolate chips.

6. Chill the dough in the fridge for at least an hour and up to 5 days. For the part that you are giving away frozen, pour onto cling-film without chilling and roll into a cylinder. At the very least, double wrap in cling-film and freeze. Then to present wrap in grease-proof paper and perhaps add a bow.

7. To bake the cookies, preheat your oven to 180'C and roll chucks of the dough into balls, spaced well apart. Bake for 10-12 minutes, or 15 minute from frozen. Remove from the oven and pat down with the back of a spatula. This will keep the cookies deliciously gooey on the inside while crispy on the outside. Let the cookies cool on the baking tray to finish cooking. Then enjoy some now, knowing you, or your friend has more for later.

Happy January!