A Recipe for Success... no exaggeration!

With everything that is happening in this crazy scary world, it is easy to get stuck for ideas on how to pass the time and stay positive during a country wide lockdown. Here in New Zealand, our country has been in lockdown since Wednesday night 11.59pm, enforced by our government and military services. We still have the privilege to leave the house for a walk or exercise in our local neighbourhood, go to the supermarket for any regular supplies, the pharmacy for medicines, and to work if you are an essential worker. But all hands are on deck for all of us to do our part in staying home to prevent further spread of COVID-19.

While I am out of work, Ben still being in work as he is essential in the food manufacturing sector, I have managed to keep busy with some hobbies and homely tasks, whilst keeping up to date with my exercises. My running routes have changed and no longer being able to access the public workout facility as it isn't in my neighbourhood, I have had to adapt, which for me is not the end of the world.

Weekends are more of a blessing than ever before! Usually, it is stock standard for me to be working at least five hours on a Saturday which would only leave for a full Sunday for Ben and I to spend quality time together. Now, we have both weekend days to be as one... the only problem being, we can't simply have the luxury of going for a drive or go out for a meal or even embark on an activity that our country usually has to offer.

Hence, the reason this post exists, is to share what we have gotten up to today - BAKING! I won't mince my words, this is my very own recipe of what I call "Yummy Cookies" because you can put practically anything in them!

Yes, literally anything! In my case, I kept it simple and stuck with chocolate chips so it was really chocolate chip cookies - it is a foolproof recipe for success.

Below is the ingredients and the recipe:

Yummy Cookies:

Ingredients:

• 2 cups all purpose flour

• 1 egg

• 3/4 cup brown sugar

• 1/2 teaspoon baking powder

• 1 tablespoon vanilla essence

• 125 grams of butter

• (you can add chocolate chips, chocolate buttons/drops, lemon rind, cocoa, sultanas, cinnamon... anything)

Method:

1. Preheat oven to bake at 175°c/347°F

2. Cream the butter and sugar - you can do this by filling the sink with 2cm of hot water and sticking the bowl into the water. This will warm the butter to soften when you stir it into the sugar. Take the bowl out of the sink when the butter starts to sweat; don't let it melt.

3. Beat in the egg and essence into the butter and sugar. Don't over beat!

4. Sieve the flour and baking powder into a large bowl. Add any option ingredients now (what I did is I instead sieved the dry ingredients immediately into the wet mixture).

5. Add wet ingredients to the dry ingredients if you haven't already done so.

6. The mixture will be sticky and that's normal, roll the mixture into balls and press onto baking tray with a fork (what I did is I pressed chocolate drops on top of the cookies on the baking tray, gently with my fingers).

7. Bake until golden brown around the edges. Depending on your oven, this could be between 15-20mins.

There we have it! A simple recipe that hits the nail on the head, every time. If you are feeling bored or that you are running out of ideas to keep sane, try out this recipe for that sweet snack you are craving. We are all in this together, things will get easier and will get better in time, if we all do our part.

"If baking is any labor at all, it's a labor of love. A love that gets passed from generation to generation." - Regina Brett xx