makes
16
prep
20 minutes
cook
15 minutes
difficulty
Easy
makes
16
serves
preparation
20
minutes
cooking
15
minutes
difficulty
Easy
level
Ingredients
- 350 g (12 oz) plain (all-purpose) flour
- 1 tsp bicarbonate of soda (baking soda)
- ½ tsp salt
- 210 g (7½ oz) unsalted butter, softened
- 80 g (2¾ oz) brown sugar
- 120 g (4¼ oz) caster (superfine) sugar
- 1 egg, at room temperature
- 1 tsp vanilla bean paste
- 200 g (7 oz) white chocolate chips
- 125 g (4½ oz) fresh blackberries, roughly chopped
Cheesecake inserts
- 300 g (10½ oz) cream cheese, softened
- 60 g (2¼ oz) icing (confectioners’) sugar
- 2 tsp vanilla bean paste
- Grated zest of 2 lemons
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 200°C/400°F fan-forced. Line two baking trays with baking paper or silicone baking mats.
- For the cheesecake inserts, combine all of the ingredients in a bowl and whisk until smooth. Spoon the mixture into blobs on another baking tray, using 2 teaspoons for each, and freeze while you prepare the cookie dough.
- Combine the flour, bicarbonate of soda and salt in a bowl and give these ingredients a good whisk, then set aside.
- Using an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cream the butter, brown and caster sugars, egg and vanilla until smooth and lightly aerated. Add the flour mixture along with the chocolate chips and mix until just combined. Gently mix in the chopped blackberries on low speed – don’t overmix here as the blackberries will leach their colour into the dough and turn it grey.
- Roll the dough into balls, using 70 g (2½ oz) dough for each. Flatten each ball in the palm of your hand, place one of the frozen cheesecake inserts in the centre and completely encase the cheesecake within the ball of cookie dough. Place the balls on the baking trays, leaving plenty of room for spreading. Bake the cookies for 15–16 minutes (see Note for tips on making cookies perfectly round) or until caramelised around the edges while still soft and blond towards the centre.
Note
- To get your cookies perfectly round, remove the tray of cookies from the oven a couple of minutes before they’ve finished baking. You want them to still be soft to allow for some shaping action. Take a cookie cutter, ring cutter or anything round that’s slightly wider than your cookies. I have a pack of ring cutters that has about ten different sizes in it. I highly recommend buying one. Place the cutter over one of the piping-hot cookies and move it around in a circular motion, shaping the cookie as you move the cutter. Watch as your cookie goes from a randomly spread shape to a perfect circle, right before your eyes! Repeat with the remaining cookies, then return your cookies to the oven for the final couple of minutes of baking.
- And here’s another tip: perfectly placed chocolate chips can be added on top of your cookies as soon as you pull them out of the oven. The chocolate chips will melt with the heat but still hold their form and reset as the cookies cool, without burning the chocolate. Simple and pretty as a picture.
Images and text from by Emelia Jackson (Murdoch Books RRP $39.99), photography by Armelle Habib, illustrations by Andrea Smith.
Cook's Notes
Oven temperatures are for conventional; if using fan-forced (convection), reduce the temperature by 20˚C. | We use Australian tablespoons and cups: 1 teaspoon equals 5 ml; 1 tablespoon equals 20 ml; 1 cup equals 250 ml. | All herbs are fresh (unless specified) and cups are lightly packed. | All vegetables are medium size and peeled, unless specified. | All eggs are 55-60 g, unless specified.
