Chicken Inasal Wednesdays

It’s officially autumn, but you still get extra hours of daylight up til 8pm which gives you the illusion that 5pm has stretched itself to three hours. So we went to the gym a bit late and getting home, I realised that I had half a chicken steeping in a marinade that would take at least 45 minutes to cook. But it was all I had - or a can of corned beef that I had been saving.

It was supposed to be chicken nasal - the marinade I made, plucked randomly from the internet called for vinegar, lemon grass (I used a powder), lemon, real-sugar sprite, brown sugar, patis, salt and pepper. Then there was a basting of atsuete powder and melted butter.

My only memory of chicken inasal was of course Mang Inasal, and my version - dumped into the air fryer for faster cooking - tasted nothing remotely of that memory. Maybe it should have been grilled over charcoal; maybe it needed real tanglad (lemon grass). Maybe it needed more acidity.

But I didn’t really care. The chicken was tender, the skin crisp and caramelised and the butter-annatto sauce dosed up with chicken salt was perfect with rice.

Stuff I ate over the weekend

Buns
We heard on the news that this cafe in our area is closing down because of some housing issue (they’re leasing a space in a historic, council-owned building), but what caught our attention was that they allegedly sell Auckland’s best cinnamon buns.

So of course, I bought some for pick-up the next day because it would be a shame that we’re in the vicinity of a much-praised food item and we haven’t even tried it (FOMO much). We’ve never been to the cafe because we’ve never been cafe-going people unless there was a special occasion, or we were in the grip of craving for chicken and chips at the one, not-so-fancy cafe that we do go to, Hollywood Cafe. And we also hate having to share cafe space (not really spacious) with animals and caterwauling kids, so…

The place was packed- I guess people heard the news so they probably came to see what the fuss was all about. The staff were full-on and there were two queues in opposite directions, leading to the tiny space where you placed your orders.

So it was a good decision to just pick up the buns which we had to wait for just five minutes. I had no idea of how big they were and thought that $48 for six was a standard price. But they were huge and had a loose free-form shape that didn’t look like the compact scrolls we’re familiar with (eg. Cinnabon’s).

But were they Auckland’s best? (I’ve honestly hadn’t had anything else from Auckland anyway). Probably Top 5; my sister’s version is better.

But to be fair, it all comes down to preference really. They were a tad too sweet for me; the glaze I initially thought, was condensed milk (why??). The next day I realised that it was actually cream cheese that probably had (a lot of) sugar added. And strangely, they weren’t cinnamony enough- you didn’t even get that whiff of cinnamon even if they were handed to us still quite warm. But I know some people who would adore all of its gooey, one-note sweetness.

Chicharon
I made binagoongang baboy and I took off the skin to make into chicharon- you don’t waste it when you have it! I realised later that I actually didn’t know how to make it into chicharon. Jong makes a big batch of it in their unpredictable oven but I haven’t gotten to asking how he makes it. I ended up cooking it three ways- frying it first (didn’t quite work not to mention the mess of exploding oil); then dumping it into the air-fryer, before I decided to put it finally in the oven on a baking rack, at low temp for about an hour. It didn’t have a lot of fat, and I ended up with something like a measly 200 grams. But look, it’s a luxury and an indulgence- you don’t need a lot of chicharon in your life.

Sunday steak and fries
I don’t eat a lot of red meat, but when I do, I get something nice like Wagyu. I’ve also perfected the method to cook it which isn’t complicated- fry each side for up to 5 minutes (this is for a 250-gram piece) for medium- rare and let rest for 10 minutes. I did a simple soy and butter gravy, made some skinny fries in the air fryer, and as a veggie side, had crisp, peppery water-cress which I just flash fried in butter and olive-oil (Sam had the beans). Done.

What I ate (over the long weekend)

  1. All Indian restaurants in Auckland seem to use the same recipe for their dishes which doesn’t really matter because 99% of the time, it’s good. It’s the kind of goodness that’s impossible to replicate. And don’t bother with pre-made mixes or sauces; they never come close to the real thing. And because the dishes seem identical wherever you buy them, I don’t quite remember where we get our favourite curries - mine is ALWAYS a lamb madras - except that it’s local. This is the one time I go all out on carbs - basmati rice and three garlic naan - because the sauce is so rich, that one serving (at less than $20 for the whole combo), lasts me THREE meals. People always joke about Filipinos eating a whole pot or rice with one cup of gravy and well it’s true. Very satisfying.

  2. There’s a Malaysian restaurant that serves crispy chicken skin, but theirs is battered which in my mind, probably doubles up the fat content. Occasionally, I save the skin from my chicken and cook them in one go, but in the oven at a low temp until they’re completely rendered. I just season it with sea salt and pepper; dipping sauce is Pinakurat vinegar.

  3. Moustache cookies.

  4. For Sam’s birthday dinner, we went to the most basic French restaurant there is Le Garde-Manger. But basic probably works because it has outlasted every other fancy French resto since opening in 2010. It probably defies trends, but the menu has changed very little; the same old classics are there with occasional specials written on the board. While not French, I ordered the fish special which was a perfectly cooked piece of snapper fillet. The accompanying side of ratatouille was so good, that I replicated it the next day. Just don’t make the mistake of having them make a cake (which turned out to be a tiny, dry forgettable chocolate cake) and order their desert crepes instead.

  5. For Sam’s birthday cake, we decided to make Ina Garten’s (in)famous Mocha Icebox cake.

Biscoff saves the day

The double-cream split and the ube jam didn’t really taste at all like ube, but Biscoff single-handedly redeemed everything!

Frankly, we’ve never heard of Biscoff until it was all over social-media, appearing everywhere from cookies, pies to ice-cream. It has that distinctness that’s similar to Amaretti biscuits; the flavour doesn’t get lost when you use it as an ingredient in something.

I made banoffee pie for Mary’s birthday and I attempted to do some variations to elevate it a bit more; putting the caramel on top of the bananas instead of underneath them, and then piping the cream topping in structured swirls. The cut bananas turn brown so putting the caramel on top ensures that they keep their colour. But using canned caramel means softening it you see and this is where it failed- the sauce was too runny and it ran down the sides (should’ve microwaved it instead of diluting it with cream).

The second disaster was the cream topping. I used double cream for the 1st time and didn’t realise that you had to watch it like a hawk in the mixer. Whisking it too long and it could become butter - which I wouldn’t have minded- but it didn’t, yet it inexplicably split (which made piping pointless).

Note 1: try making it in a smaller springform pan (which is so GODDAMNED hard to find) to give it better height.

But the Biscoff base was SPECTACULAR. It was like having a deliciously crisp and buttery cookie at the bottom. It didn’t really matter if everything else looked like a hot mess - the pie though as a whole was satisfyingly rich without being cloyingly sweet. Note 2: a Biscoff base is more delicate than one made from Graham crackers or digestives. For an eight-inch round pan, you can use two packets or about 500 grams of biscuits for a stturdier base.

Two days after the Banoffee I realised that I had an open bar of cream cheese, some leftover long life cream and one final packet of Biscoff, so I thought, why not an ube cheesecake as I also had a jar of ube in the pantry?

Making a cheesecake is easy enough - could make it with my eyes closed - but the Youtube videos were right in recommending that you not only use purple food colouring, but also ube extract. The ‘ube’ cheescake neither looked nor tasted like ube - but the nearly 2-inch Biscoff base again saved the day!

Sunday

We finally took down the Christmas trees, took the mattress that Dylan slept on when he was here back to the garage, re-arranged the plants and cleaned up my desk. The holidays are officially over.

It’s too hot to work from home (we don’t have AC) even if the second floor has plenty of windows and two sliding doors that open to the deck- but what is 26 degrees compared to a summer’s day in Pangasinan or maybe Dubai??

And yet here I am, topless, sipping water every hour and feeling that heat lethargy where half of your brain feels like mush.

And yet I have fallen in love with summer, with sunshine. I read somewhere that a man needs vitamin D to boost testosterone; so maybe I had been feeling the ‘boost’. But I’m still wary of it. A decade ago, people I knew were laughing at my SPF 80 sunscreen but look who’s laughing now. The last three years, the sunscreening has expanded to include my neck and my hands.

They say there’s a hole in the ozone right over New Zealand, so even if a 31 degree day in the scheme of things isn’t really hot, we got it worse.

It’s a bitch to deep fry in the heat, but the easiest meat in the deep freeze to cook are boneless chicken thighs so fried-chicken it is. I have the recipe for ‘popcorn chicken’ down pat which is really all in the batter. I never used to have a measurement for it, hence, the inconsistency but now I do. The ratio of flour to tapioca starch (or cornstarch) should always be one to one with a teaspoon of baking powder. From there, I just make variations on the flavouring. I’ve always been partial to Chinese five-spice or plain salted- this is because I always eat it with rice and a buffalo-ranch style of coating doesn’t really suit.

We bought the viral KMart mini rice cooker and it’s perfect; I don’t eat any more than a cup of rice and it makes enough for dinner and for lunch the next day.

What did you eat in the final days of 2023?

There were plenty of things that I still didn’t get to make, buy or eat:

  1. Leche flan (make)

  2. Sans Rival (make)

  3. Caviar (buy)

  4. Cocktail recipes I’ve saved from TikTok (make)

  5. A cheese-board (make)

  6. Salmon Wellington (make)

  7. Mini beef wellington (make)

  8. Almond Roca (buy)

  9. Pavlova Christmas tree (make)

  10. Pecan tart (make)

Maybe this year…

Korean nights

New Year’s eve buffet lunch at the Cordis

Make some cookies; you'll feel better

Actually, I’m fine. Still some last-minute Christmas crap you have to deal with and it doesn’t matter if you’ve planned and organised everything down to the last detail.

And I had to go to the city to pick something up on the hottest - a balmy 33 degrees - day of the year. Aren’t we lucky?? Didn't break into a sweat walking up and down Queen Street, probably the most chilled, unhectic city street in the world. Yes- haters can have New York or Paris or Rome and I hope you fucking get mugged.

Ruth is arriving tonight so in addition to our favourite store-bought sticky-date pudding, I thought why not fill the house with the smell of freshly-baked chocolate-chip cookies?

Didn’t add nuts or dried fruit this time, and it turned out to be your classic, chewy, burnt buttery version. And I used milk chocolate which I’ve honestly always favoured over dark chocolate which also amped up the sweetness factor.

Took all of 30 minutes for 20, 60 gram cookies (thanks to having a mixer which has seriously made the work flow easier and faster).

Ingredients:
210 g butter browned
200g dark brown sugar
100g white sugar
2 eggs
Vanilla
330g all purpose flour
3.4 tspoon baking powder and baking soda
300g chocolate your choice

Method:
- Make brown butter and let cool
- Once cool, mix with sugars and whisk. Add eggs and vanilla
- Add your sifted dry ingredients
- Add chocolate
- Bake in batches for about 12 minutes

Air-fryer 'lechon' works

I didn’t have time to marinate the pork belly a bit longer and frozen lemon-grass is a hit and miss. I don’t think the one I got from the Asian store had any flavour at all.

But the pork was flavourful - it could’ve been steamed a bit longer - and 95% of the skin became crackling which is good enough.

The pork was about a kilo and if it was any bigger, it wouldn’t have fit in the air-fryer.

Got the recipe here:

What I ate this week

We joke that the reason why this generation is fucked up is because of chicken nuggets. The conspiracy theory is that the chicken where nuggets come from are so full of hormones and other secret drugs that it’s to blame for young people’s anxiety, depression, eczema etc. It has to be right?? And not really because their grand-parents (yup, look past us GenXers!) fucked up the world as we know it today!

I only bought a bag of Tegel nuggets because it was half-price, I was needing some protein pick-me-up and it cooks in all of 10 minutes in the air-fryer.

Too much of a good thing
I put my Wonky Box subscription on hold because it wasn’t long before I was drowning in a glut of vegetables. Thanks to TikTok, I saw a good way of preparing cauliflower. By boiling it first, you cut down the cooking process when you either roast or grill it. But don’t overcook it and make sure that it’s absolutely dry when you take the next step. I literally drowned it in olive oil and melted butter before putting it in the oven. Serve it like I do with my special sauce (mayo, mustard and hot sauce) and bagel seasoning.

Didn’t realise how simple it is to make fudge. I love fudge; I don’t have a sweet tooth but when I do crave for something sweet, I go for a packet of fudge because it’s like the supernova of sweet things - all that sugary sweetness concentrated in a bar no bigger than your thumb. This is peanut-butter fudge, recipe from the NY Times.

We’re Christmas-cake connoisseurs.
This year, we ordered a total of four kilos of the stuff from our favourite supplier. Every now and then, Berta supplies us with exotics; last year, it was Jamaican black-cake, and this year, a more traditional one albeit boozed up with 75 year old bourbon whisky.

Sunday baking

I had about $6 worth of carrots and apples that are about to go off so I decided to put them into a cake that costs five times as much - so much for trying to be frugal 😂.

I had to Google carrot and apple cake and this one seemed promising; however I couldn’t find the specific Whittaker’s flavour in the recipe so I got what was available at the dairy which was a Fijian Ginger and Kerikeri Mandarin dark chocolate bar.

Baking notes:
By the 50th minute, the top was dark and a skewer inserted into the middle came out clean, but when I was trying to cut the cake across so I could put some frosting in between, the middle was very soft. Either my oven was too hot and the cake needed more time, or I should’ve waited until it was completely cool and firmed up.

With only a cup and a half of sugar in it, it wasn’t too sweet, but I feel that it needed a bit more sweetness.

Tuesday

I had a consult today with my GP.

The horror stories you normally hear about the health-care system in New Zealand isn’t about insurance (the NZ government pays for health-care services) or lawsuits, but about a lack of doctors and long waiting lists. So you try (and pray) your damn hardest not to get sick, and that if you did, knock on wood that it’s just the common cold.

I went for a different matter - I’m fine by the way - and I was surprised that there was an immediate opening. My current doctor is old, like senior citizen old, just like my previous GP who I think, got sick on the job and was now probably and definitely retired (I hope) and enjoying sunny Brighton (in England) where he’s originally from. But old doctors are the best. They have a relaxed and cheerful demeanour even when they’re desperately trying to find you a good systolic reading using a manual blood pressure monitor.

Jaqueline - my current GP - is a tall and statuesque lady who occasionally lapses into citing current studies that she’s read about, or diagramming on paper, the relationship between enzymes and bodily organs. She also patiently listens to my attempt at self-diagnoses and neither contradicts nor reproaches me (I wasn’t wrong anyway, just saying).

She saw me at 9:50 when our appointment was at 9:30 and we wrapped up at 10:45, but I didn’t complain; the whole session was worth the $50 it cost (in New Zealand, this is relatively very high).

For dinner, I thought, why not a salad? And no - it had nothing to do with my doctor’s appointment - I was still having flashbacks of that salad I had at Brewd Hawt, and the realisation that we have been doing our dressings wrong.

I didn't have iceberg lettuce - and it’s really the ideal type of lettuce for this - but use whatever you have because the point is, you need to eat those goddamned salad leaves before they go off. I had curly lettuce which I washed, dried and roughly chopped up. For the dressing, it was mayo, hot sauce, mustard and miso with some EVOO.

Drizzled that over the lettuce, did a generous sprinkling of that bagel seasoning and just because I was feeling extra, grated some parmigiana reggiano on top. YUM.

PS: my cholesterol levels were amazing the doctor said and the figure did make me gasp (a 2.2). To think that for the last 6 months, I’ve been eating butter as if it were cheese. See? There are some small miracles there…

I ate

So we took a break from eating modestly. I don’t think one can call it a diet, when you’ve been doing it for years. No breakfast except about four espressos, an office cookie at morning tea, a light lunch if I was working out later in the day, and for dinner, a protein shake after that aforementioned work-out.

But there’s a ton of work lately, so we thought, why not? Live a little and eat a little bit more than usual.

  1. Thursday’s chicken tenders from Charcoalchicken which is just 10 minutes away at our local Woolworth’s. Generously sized and cooked in fresh oil, it’s perfect with their perfectly made Kabas rice.

  2. Friday’s Mochi. Just starting to discover how versatile glutinous rice flour is and the possibilities are endless. But did a repeat of Hawaiian Butter Mochi because it’s the easiest one to do.

  3. Saturday’s chicken at Brew’d Hawt. Auckland is in the golden-era of chicken; there are chicken places everywhere you look. But it’s a small market, and sadly, when saturation sets in and everyone is like, ‘fuck this, I’ll just go back to KFC’, where will your chicken-joint end up? Which is a shame, because every single chicken-place we’ve been to is good. Ironically, the star dish isn’t always the chicken (which in spite of its batter or glaze or whatever, somehow needs a tad more seasoning) and at Brew’d Hawt, the iceberg-lettuce wedges and the fried pickles were stellar.

  4. Sunday’s Katsubi. You pick from three sizes- and I always pick Large which means salad/rice and three meat options- and they try to cram all these into a paper bowl. You also pick your sauce (I always go for Garlic Aioli and Miso Sesame). It looks intimidatingly huge when you dump everything into a plate at home for easier eating, but since opting out of having rice and just the vegetables, you don’t feel as full. Perfect as a pre-workout food.

Yes, sometimes I eat bread

I have to admit that I had my ‘gluten intolerant’ moment. With bread/wheat as the culprit, I imagined that I was bloated and crampy. We have to blame social media for that hysteria which thankfully, got clarified by the experts but not before spawning a whole new restaurant menu sub-set that never fails to make you roll your eyes.

And now I’m back to my processed-food moment so bread rarely ever makes it to our pantry.

But facetiousness aside, I’ve never been a big bread-eater anyway. I don’t know if it’s changed but growing up in the Philippines, the quality of the bread wasn’t as good (and so were the cakes), and if it was there, I ate some but I wouldn’t even give it a second thought if it disappeared from the face of the earth.

I could count with the fingers of both my hands, the number of dishes where bread was necessary: 1) beef stew (which was one of our dad’s signature dishes); 2) pansit sotanghon (you made a pansit sandwich and used the thinnest, softest white bread); 3) spaghetti (before garlic bread became commercially available, we made our own slathered with Star margarine and dosed up with Italian seasoning); 4) Christmas ham (with cold slices of salty Majestic ham, mayo and tomatoes).

I had my usual grocery delivery yesterday and sourdough was on sale so I thought, why not?

The slices are too big for a conventional toaster so toasting is done on a pan with olive oil and butter. Two fried eggs, one sliced tomato and a whole lot of seasoning and breakfast is done (coz I need the energy).

Chicken Karaage

Before there was Korean fried chicken, there was Japanese chicken karaage.

There are times when I just get sick and tired of KFC (Korean Fried Chicken) and its million and one variants, and all I crave really, is the simple taste of chicken and that hint of ginger and soy.

No cheese, butter laced gochujang, bbq sauce (the worst) or ranch. And no bones!

I’ve had so many versions over the years and I’m glad that Eric Kim of NYTimes Cooking has laid to rest that question of ‘what is the definitive recipe for chicken karate?’ (watch his video). The answer being, is that there isn’t one.

There was a time when I literally had something deep-fried every week, mostly on weekends, but I’ve been pacing that now but when I do, it’s karaage.

My recipe is almost identical to Eric’s but with one difference- I use an equal part of tapioca starch in my batter with regular flour. You could do the starch exclusively, but flour mixed in gives it a crunch that’s firm, but not too crunchy which is my preference.

Ingredients:
1pound boneless, skinless chicken thighs, cut into 2-inch pieces
1(2-inch) piece ginger, peeled and finely grated (2 teaspoons)
2tablespoons soy sauce
2tablespoons sake
½teaspoon granulated sugar
½teaspoon coarse kosher salt
1large egg
1/2 cup tapioca starch mixed with 1/2 cup regular flour.
About 1 quart canola or vegetable oil, for frying

Step 1
To a medium bowl, add the chicken, ginger, soy sauce, sake, sugar and salt. Toss to combine. Cover and refrigerate for at least 30 minutes and up to 1 hour.

Step 2
Place a wire rack over a large, paper towel-lined sheet pan. Crack the egg into a small bowl and whisk. To a large bowl, add the starches. One by one, dip the chicken into the egg, then into the batter mixture until evenly coated. Set the coated chicken pieces on the left side of the wire rack.

Step 3
To a medium saucepan, add enough oil to fill a third of the way up. Heat the oil over medium-high to 320 degrees. Turn your hood vent on, if you’ve got one, and open a nearby window, if possible. Working in batches, fry the chicken until crunchy and light brown, adjusting the heat so the oil temperature stays between 300 and 320 degrees, 4 to 6 minutes per batch. Using tongs or a slotted spoon, transfer the fried chicken to the right side of the wire rack, away from the portion that was exposed to the raw chicken, to rest slightly.

Step 4
Serve with the optional (but very delicious) lemon wedges and mayonnaise dusted with togarashi.

Friday's Mac and 'Cheese'

The sixth consecutive food post that made me think, since eating seems to be the only thing of significance I do in my life, I might as well do a food blog. Our kitchen isn’t the best though- for shooting cooking videos that is, so I need to be creative with my shots.

I’ve been mulling whether to buy this clever camera stand as well as a whole slew of stuff from this site which means that at the end of it all, I’d probably be fat and poor.

Anyhow, another week done and we’re already hurtling towards the holidays which is funny, because in mid-August I started getting a lot of pumpkin-pie, pumpkin-anything stuff on my social feeds. I also got an email from Nespresso hawking their limited-edition pumpkin-spice cake pods.

It’s a shame the Z station near our office burned down; Z Energy Cafes sell the BEST PUMPKIN SPICE LATTES in the country. It was so good, that I had one every other day last year for the duration that it was available.

I have a can of Libby’s Pumpkin Puree that an American (obviously) friend gave me- might do that pumpkin flan I’ve been wanting to do.

I was all set to have Spam and eggs for dinner when I spotted three large capsicums in my fridge that I had meant to make into a sauce; one was already on its way out but the other two (large) ones were still okay. So I popped them into the oven to grill. Peeled and de-seeded, you saute them in olive oil and butter with a couple of cloves of garlic. And the magic ingredient that makes them taste as if you’ve put dollops of cream and cheese? A chicken flavour cube.

It’s then pureed and mixed in with the macaroni. Since I didn’t have cheese which usually makes the topping along with bread crumbs and butter, I had to use this salad topper mix that had moorish yeast flakes, toasted seeds and crispy onions.

I very briefly put the mac under the grill just enough to heat the topping- it didn’t have cheese anyway so there was nothing there to melt- because I actually like my pasta runny.

Boun appetito!

Cookie Wednesday

I could be wrong, but I’ve never made cookies before. Full disclosure- not too fond of them. I’d eat them for sure if they were offered, but I don’t go crazy for them. We have a steady, free supply of cookies and biscuits at work and I do have one or two every day (!) but it hasn’t become a habit. Given the choice between a packet of choc-chip cookies or a deli pork-belly roast, I would always pick the latter.

Fact: I love a rum-raisin cookie though and on the rare times I get a Subway sandwich, I always get one if it is available.

But I decided to make this cookie because I saw it on Instagram- the current source of culinary inspiration- and the guy just did it well, plus, it was salted caramel, with emphasis on salt (using Maldon sea salt) which is my go-to flavour for sweet stuff.

Alas, I neither had the time to make the caramel (didn’t feel like watching a pot of simmering sugar) nor had Maldon sea salt. Tried to use Himalayan, but it’s not really fine and flaky as Maldon.

But I was committed and in lieu of caramel, I bought a packet of cranberries. The recipe is as follows if you want to make the caramel:

Ingredients:
200g granulated sugar
a pinch of Maldon Sea Salt Flakes
Cookies
210g unsalted butter, cubed
200g dark brown sugar
100g granulated sugar
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla extract
330g all-purpose flour
¾ tsp baking powder
¾ tsp baking soda
1 tsp Maldon Sea Salt Flakes
300g dark chocolate, chopped
Maldon Sea Salt Flakes for finishing

Method
1. To make the caramel, add the granulated sugar to a small saucepan. Over a medium heat, melt the sugar until you reach a golden amber colour, swirl the pot to mix the caramel
2. Season the caramel with a pinch of Maldon Sea Salt Flakes, then pour it onto a heat proof surface covered in greaseproof paper and set aside to harden
3. Add the cold butter, with a pinch of salt to a saucepan and melt. Once the butter has melted, continue to cook until it starts to develop a darker colour and smells almost nutty. Then, pour the butter into the bowl of a stand mixer and let it cool for 15-20 minutes
4. While the hot butter is cooling, get all your dry ingredients ready in a separate bowl, chop your chocolate into large chunks, and smash the caramel into small coin size pieces
5. Once your butter has cooled slightly, add both the sugars to it. Mix using the paddle attachment. Once the sugar has dissolved into the butter, add the eggs one at a time and beat until the eggs have emulsified
6. Add your dry ingredients to this in 2 or 3 batches, at this point you’re trying to bring the batter together - you don’t want to overwork it
7. Add the chopped chocolate and caramel and mix for another 2-3 minutes
8. Line a baking tray with greaseproof paper and give it a light spray with cooking oil. Roll the cookie dough into balls and place them on the tray evenly spaced apart. Pat them down so they form a slight disc shape, then finish them with some Maldon Sea Salt Flakes
9. Bake the cookies at 180°C for 10-12 minutes. Take them out of the oven while they’re still a little bit soft.

It’s funny when you get recipes that call for eye-balling the amount of dough or using an ice-cream scooper where there’s really no guarantee of scooping consistent quantities. Use a digital scale- I have one which I got as a Christmas gift- and you’ll always get your quantities and sizes correctly. Turns out, the weight dictates the eventual size.

And don’t believe what you see on social-media; 9 times out of ten, the quantities they prescribe don’t match what you just watched. In the video, the guy made FOUR cookies.

I weighed the entire thing before portioning them out and the grand total was 1239 grams. I ended up making six 100 gram cookies; four 46 gram ones; three 80 gram ones and three 75 gram ones (these are not exact weights- some of the cookies were a couple of grams smaller).

As expected, they were delicious especially when they were still warm. But also so rich that I couldn’t finish even half a (large) 100 gram cookie. Since everyone in the house is dieting, will be bringing them to work instead.