These Are Great

Have you come across Apples for Jam? It's a new-ish cookbook by Tessa Kiros and it's just gorgeous. It's huge, so I've found heaps of recipes I want to try and the pics are lovely - simple, bright and beautiful in a natural kind of way rather than a "we spent 15 hours getting this cake to look right" way (even if they did, it doesn't look like it!). I've borrowed it from the library but you can be sure this one's going on the Christmas wish list (hint hint, Mum).

I had some dried cranberries that needed to be used so flicked through and came across this recipe. This is the best cookie I've made in a long while - buttery, shortbready, so yummy and with chocolate. What more could you want?

Chocolate and Cranberry Biscuits

Apples for Jam by Tessa Kiros

75g (2 3/4 oz) butter, softened

50g (1 3/4 oz) soft brown sugar

50g (1 3/4 oz) caster sugar

1 egg

a few drops of vanilla extract

160g (5 3/4oz) plain flour

1/2 teaspoon baking powder

110g dark chocolate, roughly chopped

50g (1 3/4oz) dried cranberries

Preheat the oven to 190C/375F and line two baking trays with baking paper. Mash up the butter and sugar with a wooden spoon until well mixed then whisk with electric beaters until smooth (I tried to go straight to the beaters and it didn't work, do as suggested and mash away with the spoon first). Mix int he egg and vanilla. Sift in the flour and baking powder and dd a small pinch of salt, Bat with the wooden spoon to make a soft sandy mixture. Stir in the chocolate and cranberries.

Lightly moisten your hands (do this, it makes it MUCH less sticky to handle) and roughly roll teaspoons of the mixture into balls. Arrange them on the trays, leaving a fair space between for flattening and spreading (mine didn't spread much). Bake for about 12-15 minutes, or until the biscuits are golden and darkening around the edges. Remove from the oven but leave them on the tray to cool and firm up. These will keep in a biscuit tin for a couple of days.