I suck at baking. There, I’ve said it. Now that it’s in writing there’s officially no denying it. I don’t like to bake. I don’t like to eat sweet stuff. Heck, I even prefer store-bought cookies over home made and that’s a shame. A real shame.

Not in the least because cookie postings don’t seem to take any time at all! I should’ve opened a baking blog, would’ve only been 1/3 of the work, I tell you.

But there’s that thing again; I suck at baking.

So it’s all the more surprising that when I saw a Food Network recipe from a contestant in some sort of cooking battle for humongous chocolate chip cookies, I broke down. Big time. I memorized the recipe and gave it my own spin.

If there ever was a way to heal a broken heart with cookies, it would be with these: chocolate, raisins, rum and walnuts. Need I say more? Really?

Ingredients:

1/3 cups sugar
1/2 cup firmly packed brown sugar
1 stick unsalted butter (115gr)
1 tbsp  vanilla extract
1 large egg
1 1/2 cups flour
1/2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
1/2 cup chocolate chips
1/2 cups walnuts
1/3 cups raisins
2 tbsp brown rum

Directions:

Add the rum to the raisins and nuke them at full power for about a minute. The raisins will soak up the rum. Let them cool off.

I used my food processor to combine the sugars and had the kiddo blitz them until they were combined.

Add the soft butter and blitz for a minute or so. There’s that tiny finger again.

He was real serious about checking things. Add the vanilla extract, the (room temperature) egg and give it another 10 seconds.

It should look like this now.

Add the flour, salt and baking soda.

Because I knew my food processor would chop them, I added the walnuts whole. Add the choc chips and raisins as well and blitz until the flour is just combined.

It sure tasted good.

I wrapped it up and let it rest in the fridge for half an hour. Yes, yes, I knew I had to let the dough rest. I read it somewhere and we all know the internet is always right.

It gave me time to do more Kay-like stuff. Like chopping the veggies for my pasta sauce. Now we’re talking.

After about 20 minutes I filled an ice scoop with the cookie dough and placed them on a parchment lined cookie sheet.

Flatten them with your hands, but don’t tidy them up too much.

 
Bake the cookies in a preheated oven at 350F° (175C°) for 14 to 17 minutes depending on how chewy or crunchy you like them. I opted for chewy and stuck with 15 minutes.
 

Let them cool on the rack.

I can honestly say that these were the first home made cookies I liked better than store-bought! Serve with lots of cold milk.