THE CHOCOLATE COOKIE RECIPE IVE BEEN LOOKING FOR MY WHOLE LIFE...

Living in France is great because there is a lot of great food- a lot of great French food that is. But when it comes to American specialties things can get a lil' tricky...even dissapointing may I say?

Because the truth is that as much as I love fancy French food, as much as sometimes I just want something a little more ''simple'' (no offense!) like a yummy heartwarming cookie. Who would had ever thought that finding a decent US style cookie is quite mission impossible over here? All I seem to find is crumbly and crunchy cookies when what I really want is a large rich chewy cookie with big chunks of chocolate hidden inside!

And so I decided that it was about time I find a perfect recipe that would result in the dream cookie that could only exist in an ideal world. Maybe my patience has paid off... after years of research, I think I may have just found it- at least for now it beats any other recipe I've ever tried out!

OOEY GOEY CHOCOLATE CHIP COOKIES (makes about 8 large cookies)

114gr chocolate (70%) choppped

30 gr butter

40gr flour

1/2 teaspoon baking powder

Pinch of salt

1 large egg

80gr brown sugar

1/2 teaspoon vanilla

170gr chocolate (70%) chips

Heat chopped chocolat with butter until just melted. In a bowl, beat egg, sugar and vanilla on high speed until fluffy. Then beat in the melted chocolat on low speed. Mix in the flour, baking powder and salt. Finally add the chocolate chips and mix cookie dough well. Place dough in freezer for 20 minutes, and during that time preheat oven to 180C. Line baking tray with parchment paper, form golf ball size balls with cookie dough and place on baking tray keeping enough space between each ball. Bake for 12 minutes- balls will fall flat and shape themselves into a yummy chunky cookie.

P.S: I used only 70% chocolate here, which produces a very grown-up adultish gourmet result. If you're looking for something a bit sweeter feel free to use 52% regular baking chocolate for the melted mixture and keep 70% only for the chips.

CRUMBLY, BUTTERY...THE HIGHLY ADDICTIVE GHRAYBEH

This is the story of a small round buttery & crumbly cookie known as ''ghraybeh'', pronounced 'gh-ray-bay'...just as it reads.

Ghraybeh is a sweet speciality well known in the Middle East, particularly Levant countries such as Syria and Lebanon. But it's one of those cookies I've always bought yet never thought of making at home. They are one of my all time favourites- something highly addictive about their soft almost silky-like angelic outer surface which with the first bite, melts into your mouth and transforms itself into a sensational rich texture which simultaneously just seems to evaporate into sweet crumbleness leaving a dreamy orange-blossom perfume on your tastebuds. It's a magical cookie indeed.

And what's even more magical about it is that it's made of three base ingredients- and can be adapted for vegans too.

Make them, share them... but I dare you to try resisting them!

Recipe for Ghraybeh (makes about 30 pieces)

150gr clarified butter

150gr icing sugar

300gr flour

1 tablespoon orange blossom water

Pistachios, almonds or pinenuts for decoration

Extra icing sugar on the side

Mix the butter, sugar and orange blossom water together until frothy and of a light colour. Add the flour, mix and then mix by hand for 5 minutes. Place dough in fridge for 30 mins. Preheat oven to 180C, shape little balls (about half the size of a golf ball) and place on a baking tray lined with parchment paper. Top each ghraybeh ball with a piece of pistachio, almond or pinenut. Bake for 15-20mins, remove, and roll baked cookies in icing sugar (this is optional, but it adds even more magic!). Otherwise, remove, let cool and enjoy!

SWEET BUTTERY GOODNESS

And so here we go- more cookies. Sweet buttery goodness, cute innocent shaped sables made from a fantastic base recipe that can lead to infinite variations. I went for orange-poppy seeds & caramel-with-a-pinch-of-salt.

Nothing better then a sable with a cuppa tea to comfort us throughout this unbearable winter cold....

Creamy butter with chunky orange zest... sinful, so wrong but so good!

Finally- the poppy seeds I brought back from Budapest came to use! (did I tell you that poppy seeds were all over the place in Budapest?)

I like that the orange zest was chunky

DONE! Fragrant crunchy delicious orange-poppy seed sables!

That's not it... at 2 in the morning (yes you read right- 2 in the morning!) I went down to the kitchen and got back to baking- salted caramel this time! Afterhours baking is the best :)

Base recipe for sables- just 3 ingredients & no eggs!

makes approx 20 sables

180g butter, softened

80g icing sugar

300g flour

Preheat oven to 160C

Whisk butter with icing sugar until creamy. Add the flour until crumbly, then mix by hand to form a consistent cookie dough texture. Roll out, cut out shapes and place on a baking tray lined with parchment paper. Bake for 15 mins. Remove and let cool.

For orange-poppy seed:

add 2 teaspoons of orange zest into the butter & sugar.

add 1 tablespoon of poppy seeds with the flour

For caramel-with-a-pinch-of-salt:

add 3 tablespoons of caramel sauce into the butter & sugar

add 1/2 teaspoon salt with the flour (taste if you feel you want more saltiness)