Chocolate Melting Moments

Try these simple and easy to bake at home cookies 

Ingredients:

250 gms unsalted butter (soft)

250 gms plain flour (sifted)

60 gms of icing sugar

60 gms of corn flour (sifted)

1 tsp vanilla essence

Baking tray lined with parchment paper

For the chocolate coating 

few slabs of dark cooking chocolate 

2 tbsp of icing sugar

Method:

1. Take a large clean bowl and mix butter with icing sugar. Beat it till it mixes well and fluffy. Add vanilla essence and mix for few minutes (You can use an electrical beater if you want)

2. Add flour little by little and mix well. Then add the cornflour till you get a nice smooth buttery dough consistency

3. Take the baking tray lined with parchment paper. Make small flat balls and place them on the tray. You can take a fork and press on them to give them a design. Alternatively, you can use an piping bag, fill it with the dough and pipe designs on the baking tray, this will create cute designer cookies :)

4. Place them in the fridge for 10 minutes and pre heat oven at 180 deg C

5. Bake the cookies for roughly 15 minutes or till golden brown

6. Meanwhile, melt chocolate and whisk it with icing sugar

7. Once cookies have cooled down, dip one side into the chocolate or just take a spoon and spread the chocolate mixture

8. After 10 minutes the chocolate would have set it well and cookies are ready to be eaten

Tips - You can create any spread for the cookies. Maybe even fill chocolate / strawberry cream between two cookies and sandwich them.

Home made Fresh Strawberry Jam

500 gms - Fresh Strawberries
350 gms - Caster Sugar
1 cup lemon juice
25gms - Unsalted butter

Method:
1. Cut the strawberries in half (be sure to remove the ones that have soft patches. The jam lasts longer if the strawberries are a bit under ripe) and drop them into a clean bowl.
2. Add 1/2 the caster sugar to the strawberries and mix them well
3. Cover with a cling film and keep it overnight in the fridge
4. When you take it out the next day the strawberries will be floating in a lovely juice (as the sugar melts and blends well with the strawberries)
5. Take a saucepan and add these strawberries to it with the juice. Add the remaining sugar and lemon juice and keep stirring (on low flame)
6. In about 30 mins you will find the jam slowly starting to set and forming a lovely texture (if you like it to be nice and spreadable switch it off immediately or else keep it a bit longer to form a more jelly like texture)
7. Add the butter to give it a glossy texture
8. Store the yummy jam in sterilised jam jars

You can make this with Apricots as well

Tip - You can always use extra jam to make 'Jam filled biscuits' - Just take 1/2 cup butter, 1/2 cup sugar beat them well. Add 1 cup plain flour and mix well to form a nice smooth dough. Pre-heat oven to 180 deg C. Take an oven tray, line with parchment paper / baking paper. Make dough into small flat biscuit shapes and make a small hole on top of these shapes. Fill it with the jam and bake this for 15 mins or until golden brown.