Liam Charles’s Cupboard Cookies!

A sweet treat this week, Cupboard Cookies from Liam Charles cookbook Second Helpings. The name says it all really, this is a delicious way involve kids in the kitchen and keep them occupied whilst you enjoy a well-earned cup of tea.

Liam says: Alright… it’s pretty fair to say we all have those snacks in our cupboard that we get out probably once or twice a year then put back into hibernation. Sooooooo, I suggest popping all those lovely snacks in a cookie.

Ingredients:

Cookies
250g unsalted butter, softened
70g soft light brown sugar
70g caster sugar
2 tsp vanilla extract or vanilla bean paste
2 large eggs
300g plain flour
1 tsp fine sea salt
¼ tsp bicarbonate of soda

Cupboard Treats
100g sweet ‘n’ salty popcorn
240g crispy M & Ms, roughly chopped
150g pretzels, roughly chopped

Method:

1 Blitz the popcorn in a food processor until roughly ground.

2 Preheat oven to 180°C/Fan 160°C/Gas 4 and line two baking trays with baking paper.

3 Cream the butter and both sugars in a large bowl until light and fluffy, add the vanilla and mix again (you can do this in a stand mixer or with a hand-held electric whisk). Add the eggs one at a time, beating after each addition.

4 Sift the flour, salt and bicarbonate of soda into a separate bowl,then add the flour mixture to the butter and egg mixture. Divide the mixture by three (or by the number of cupboard treats you are using), then add the cupboard treats separately to each portion of dough. Mix well to combine.

If you fancy a mixture of treats in one cookie, don’t worry about dividing up the dough and add all the treats in together instead. This part is up to you, so get creative!

5 Using the hinged ice-cream scoop, place portions of the cookie dough on the lined baking trays then gently flatten each scoop. Bake for 12–15 minutes. They should be slightly soft in the middle– you know, the gooey type.

6 Remove from the oven and leave to firm up on the baking trays for 5 minutes, then place on a wire rack to cool fully.

It’s a bit of a cliché, but for this one get a fat glass of milk and dunk it… you will be in heaven.

Extract from Liam Charles Second Helpings.