When it comes to fresh, regional/local seasonal food, New Zealander Annabel Langbein has one of the most impressive pedigrees around. She has a degree in Horticulture, is the self-published author of numerous cookbooks, has a successful cooking television show in New Zealand which focuses on the seasonal produce of her own vegetable garden and she also has a past history of hunting her own food – so, no flash in the pan here. Her latest book, “Free Range in the City” aims to show the urban dweller that it is still not only possible, but immensely satisfying to offer simple, sustainable food from your kitchen. There are over 200 recipes in this book, most gloriously photographed and all of them using fresh, accessible ingredients to turn out meals that any cook – however experienced – would be proud to offer either family or friends.
The recipes are indexed in several different ways to make the book as versatile as possible. There is the alphabetic index at the back, the contents in the front are divided into events – coffee break, barbecues, dinner in minutes, party plates, etc – and further in the book all the recipes are listed again under the categories of “Impromptu”, “Make Ahead”, “Portable”, “Freezable”, “Vegetarian” & “Gluten Free”. This is enormously practical depending upon your requirements at any given time. Each dish comes with snippets of extra information, the book is dotted with shopping, cooking and serving tips and hints and – joy of joys – it always stays open on the page you are working from.
My recently-released domestic goddess cooked up several dishes from the book last week and was utterly thrilled to find that they all made up a very respectable amount of food and all worked out exactly as stated – not a situation that always occurs with new cookbooks, much to her chagrin. The one I’ll share with you is Annabel’s chocolate chip cookie recipe. I know, I’m just so very predictable, but I was quite pleased with the way my photo turned out for this one and just had to show it to you all.
Like her other recipes, this makes a big batch of cookies so I rolled half of the dough up into a log, wrapped it firmly in plastic wrap and foil and popped it it the freezer for later. I used a combination of Lindt 50% and 70% because I’m fussy about my chocolate, but if all you have on hand are choc chips they’ll be fine. A word of warning – don’t do what I did and leave the dough in the fridge overnight. It sets like a rock and is then very difficult to work with for quite some time. Annabel’s recommendation for 15 minutes in the fridge to chill would be more than adequate.
Annabel Langbein’s Chocolate Chip Cookies
Ingredients
- 500 gms soft butter (NOT magarine)
- 1 cup sugar
- 1/2 cup condensed milk
- 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
- 4 1/2 cups plain flour
- 4 tsp baking powder
- 500gm dark chocolate, chopped into chunks
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 160C (I used 170C) & line baking trays.
- Beat butter & sugar until creamy.
- Beat in condensed milk and vanilla.
- Stir in flour, baking powder and chocolate until just blended.
- Chill dough in fridge for 15 minutes until firm.
- Roll into walnut sized balls and place on tray, leaving space between each.
- Flatten firmly with your hand and then flatten again with a fork to make thin.
- Bake 15 minutes, until golden.
- Cool on trays.
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I love Annabel, her recipes are always so trustworthy and you know it will turn out well.
Those cookies look SO good!!! I love the big chocolate chunks.
Yummy, I love choc chip biscuits, they are among my favourites. Just look at those huge chunks of chokkie! I’ll be over for a cuppa this afternoon!
I am ignoring Christmas this year – living in hope it might just go away quietly !! In the event that it doesn’t then I can see myself just spending the time finding solace in eating an enormous mound of the above cookies – they look addictive !!
Oh…all the best for the Christmas planning/Birthday celebrations……take it one day at a time.
The cookies look divine. I’m aching for some homebaked cookies to sink weary teeth into. Happy American Thanksgiving….just in case you’re celebrating!
Annabel is great. I discovered her years ago when we lived in NZ. The choc chip recipe looks good. I like the sound of the condensed milk in the ingredients.
Jennifer – Recipe reliability is a big bugbear of mine, so I celebrate it where I can.
Lizzie – I don’t believe in stinting on chocolate and neither does Annabel.
Kate – the best thing about Xmas is the excuse to eat mounds of what you fancy!
Oz – I’ll have well and truly earned my holidays this year.
Barbara – I firmly believe the only thing better than a recipe using a tin of condensed milk is a recipe using 1/2 a tin of it. The remaining contents and a spoon make me very happy.
About the only thing I dont like about Annabel is that our atrocious digital reception means that the signal pops in and out during her show on telly. Apart from that, I think I may have found yet another fabulous cookbook for my christmas wishlist.
Will try the cookies for the kids today, cold rainy weather (here in the Hunter Valley) always inspires me to get into the kitchen and start baking!
i too vouch for Ms Langbein – great recipes that are well written and show a respect for ingredients and readers. Though these are from a different hemisphere, i think you might also like Hugh F-W’s Every Day, and Veg Every Day: l ong time since i’ve been inspired to buy books rather than borrow and photocopy.
Michelle – I’d love to see your Xmas list, I’ll bet it’s a good one!
Nesta – She’s one in a million. Did you know she used to jump out of helicopters to catch live deer? What a woman!!
It’s worth being fussy when it comes to good chocolate! My middle celebrates her birthday on the 22nd as well . These cookies look awesome, I would like to see you chisel the solid dough for the cookies, how funny 🙂
I’ve had a good look at this cookbook and it looks great. Every year I hope and pray I’ll have my life in order so the Christmas season can be enjoyed in a more relaxing way. I haven’t experienced one smooth-sailing December yet. It just seems to be the way.
I wish I had discovered putting logs of biscuit dough in the freezer before this year, however since I started doing it, ah… so, much easier. It kind of feels like I’m cheating- but in a good way!
Now this book looks interesting I’ll have to have a look out for it.
Good luck with your christmas and birthday celebrations- there is a minor frantic rush here too, despite best intentions…sigh.
Aah yes, the silly season is rapidly approaching! What a fantastic book – she sounds like an incredible woman!
🙂 Mandy
I have never seen Annabel’s show and don’t own her books, but these cookies sure look wonderful.
I saw this in the bok shop on the weekend. I really love Annabelle Langbein , I wondered what this new book was like. Thanks for passing on the unusual chocolate chip cookie recipe