Chocolate, fudge & smoked salt cookies

In many ways this is a bizarre recipe to pick from Gill Meller's wonderful book Time - there are so many inspiring and beautiful savoury recipes in it - but there are times when we all need a cookie and what better than chocolate AND fudge?

Gill writes: "I like to serve these cookies warm from the oven after supper, with a coffee or a brandy, or both. You can make the dough in advance; simply roll it into a cylinder, wrap it in baking parchment and pop it in the fridge. You can then slice off individual rounds for baking whenever you feel like it.

The pinch of smoked salt adds wisps of warmth to the bitter chocolate and sweet fudge, and gives the cookies an almost campfire quality.

makes 8–10 large cookies

100g (3 1/2oz) unsalted butter

100g (3 1/2oz) light soft brown sugar

50g (2oz) caster sugar

1 egg

dash of vanilla extract or the seeds from ½ a vanilla pod

150g (5 1/2oz) self-raising flour

75g (2 1/2oz) good-quality dark chocolate (70% cocoa solids), broken up

75g (2 1/2oz) your favourite fudge

1 or 2 good pinches of smoked salt flakes

Heat the oven to 190°C/375°F/gas mark 6. and line two baking sheets with baking parchment.

Melt the butter in a small saucepan over a low heat. Put both types of sugar into a mixing bowl, pour on the butter and beat well. Add the egg and the vanilla extract or seeds and beat again until well combined. Sift in the flour and fold it in. Allow the mixture to cool for 15–20 minutes before stirring in half the chocolate and half the fudge pieces.

Dot heaped spoonfuls of the mixture over the prepared trays, then distribute the remaining chocolate and fudge equally over the surfaces of the cookies. Sprinkle the cookies with the smoked salt and bake for 8–10 minutes, until the cookies are lovely and golden. Allow the cookies to cool for 10 minutes before lifting onto a cooling rack to firm up. Store in an airtight container for up to 1 week.

What to drink: Gill suggests coffee and/or a brandy which seems an excellent suggestion. Whisky would also be a good call as would an oloroso sherry or a madeira.

Extracted from Time: a year and a day in the kitchen by Gill Meller (Quadrille, £25.00) Photography: Andrew Montgomery.

Polish spiced Christmas cookies

Even if you don't normally bake it's worth taking the time at Christmas and what could be more perfect than this Polish spiced Christmas cookie recipe from Ren Behan's lovely book Wild Honey & Rye

I first met Ren years ago when she came along to a writing workshop I was giving at a blogger's conference and it's great to see how she's gone from strength to strength. Do visit her lovely website renbehan.com

POLISH SPICED CHRISTMAS COOKIES (PIERNICZKI ÅšWIÄ„TECZNE)

These Christmas cookies very quickly became the most popular recipe on my website when I first posted them in November 2011, just a year into starting my food blog. Since then, I’ve loved receiving emails and photos of the cookies that friends and readers have made for their own trees, or to give as gifts ahead of Christmas. Instead of making the icing to decorate the cookies, you could buy writing icing. Since I use wild honey and rye (flour) in my cookies, the title of my book was hidden within this recipe – long before I knew it!

Makes about 24 cookies, depending on the size of cutters used

115g/4oz/½ cup unsalted butter, plus extra for greasing

115g/4oz/generous ½ cup soft dark brown sugar

8 tbsp runny honey

450g/1lb/scant 4 cups plain (all-purpose) flour or rye flour, plus extra for dusting

2 tsp baking powder

2 tsp ground ginger

2 tsp ground cinnamon

2 tbsp mixed spice

2 tbsp cocoa powder

1 egg

To decorate

150g/5½oz/generous 1¼ cups icing (confectioners’) sugar, sifted

1 egg white

1 tbsp water

food colouring (optional)

Preheat the oven to 200°C/400°F/Gas Mark 6. Lightly grease three large baking sheets with butter.

Put the butter, brown sugar and honey in a small saucepan over a gentle heat. Stir only until the butter has melted. Set to one side.

In a large bowl, sift the dry ingredients together, mix well, add the egg and mix again. Pour the melted butter mixture into the dry ingredients and stir until the dough starts to come together.

Tip the mixture out onto a lightly floured work surface and knead to form a ball. If the mixture is too crumbly, add a tablespoon of water at a time and knead again until it comes together. Roll out the dough to about 3mm/1⁄8in thick. Cut out shapes using cookie cutters and carefully lift the cookies onto the baking sheets; leave about 1–2cm/¾in around each cookie – they don’t spread too much. Bake the cookies for 7–8 minutes per batch, until golden.

While the cookies are baking, make the icing by stirring together the icing sugar, egg white and water. If you like, divide the icing into different bowls and add a little food colouring to one or more bowls. Mix together really well until you have a thick paste that will pour evenly off a spoon. Fill a piping bag fitted with a fine nozzle with the icing and set to one side.

When the cookies are baked, they will still be a bit soft. Using a palette knife, carefully lift them onto a wire rack and leave to cool. If you are decorating the cookies for the tree, use a chopstick to make a small hole in the top of each cookie as soon as they come out of the oven, but be careful not to break the top off the cookie by pressing too hard.

Once cooled, decorate your cookies with the icing. Store in a tin for up to 2 weeks, as they will soften. If used as Christmas tree decorations, they can be left on the tree for the season.

Extracted from Wild Honey & Rye: Modern Polish Recipes by Ren Behan published by Pavilion at £20. Image credit Yuki Sugiura (cropped to fit from the original)

Honey & Co's chocolate and pistachio cookies

I tasted these gorgeously squidgy chocolate cookies last year at the Bath launch of Sarit Packer and Itamar Srulovich’s baking book which is a must-buy for anyone who loves baking. Or frankly, even if you don’t - you will by the time you've read it.

What makes the book so utterly irresistible (apart from the great recipes) is Sarit and Itamar’s chatty writing style, a sample of which you can see (from Sarit) in the introduction to this recipe:

"Itamar discourages me from making cookies for the shop for many reasons. They are very labour-intensive, taking up much of our pastry time; plus the rest of the kitchen, seeing a tray coming out of the oven, will flock round to try to damage the little things so they can have them.

The main point of disagreement, however, is that he doesn’t see them as dessert. I most definitely do. I think there is nothing nicer as a treat and a bowlful of indulgent cookies passed around the table can be the perfect finish to a rich dinner. They contain just the right amount of sweetness and if one isn’t quite enough you can always have another and then just one more … Maybe I can see the problem with them after all."

makes 12 large cookies or 24 bite-sized ones

250g chocolate (I use a 60% cacao dark chocolate)

50g unsalted butter

2 eggs

175g light brown soft sugar

60g strong white bread flour

1/2 tsp baking powder

a pinch of table salt

About 200g pistachios very roughly chopped to coat

You will also need two baking trays lined with baking parchment.

Melt the chocolate and butter together in a bowl in the microwave or over a double steamer. In the meantime whisk the eggs and sugar to a sabayon - that is, until the mixture is very thick and fluffy.

Fold the melted chocolate into the eggs. Add the flour, baking powder and salt then fold together until you have a lovely even mixture. Allow to rest for about 30 minutes in a cool place or pop in the fridge for 10-15 minutes (you want the dough to be manageable but not set). If you forget about it in the fridge and it sets solid you will have to bring it back up to temperature in a warm place so that you can handle it easily.

Divide the dough into 12 and using two spoons or a piping bag shape into balls of about 50g each. I usually use weighing scales but you can be more relaxed if you prefer and just estimate the size.

Spread the chopped pistachios on a flat tray and drop the balls of chocolate goodness onto them. Flip them to coat all over then transfer to the baking trays, allowing about 5cm between them as they will spread in the heat of the oven. You can keep the unbaked cookies in the fridge until you are ready to bake or, alternatively freeze them for up to 2 weeks and simply thaw before baking.

Pre-heat the oven to 200°C/180°C fan/gas mark 6. Place the trays of cookies in the centre of the oven for 8-9 minutes (allow 12 minutes if the cookies have been chilled). Remove and leave to cool on the trays while the chocolate sets fully. Once the cookies are cool you wil be able to pick them up quite easily but the middle will stay nice and soft like a moist chewy brownie so handle with care. These keep well for up to a week in an airtight container or sealed bag.

What to drink: I'm not sure wine is the best accompaniment for these - I'd personally go for an espresso or black Americano coffee but you could try a Greek muscat or a vin santo.

Recipe from Honey & Co. The Baking Book published by Saltyard Books. Photograph © Patricia Niven.