Pam's Cookies

This cookie recipe was given to me years ago by a well-traveled friend of mine who, at some time in the past, had met a woman called Pam when she was visiting Borneo. Pam gave her this cookie recipe. My friend carried on with her travels and lost touch with Pam. Eventually, after a few years of wandering the globe, she ended up living in France for a while, which is where I met her. At that point, she passed Pam's cookie recipe on to me. I never got to meet Pam, or find out anything about her, but I often make her cookies and think about who she might be and where she could be in the world. Her cookie recipe has been carried like an Olympic torch all over the world, and now I am passing it on to you.

Who knows, maybe if it keeps being shared, one day it will end up back in the hands of Pam!

I love this recipe as it is

1. very easy to throw together,
2. there are no waiting times (except for waiting for the cookies to cool off so that you can eat one without burning your fingers,
3. and it is very versatile. You can substitute vegetable shortening for butter (in fact the original recipe doesn't use butter), and you can add different combinations of chocolate, nuts or raisins, depending what is in your cupboard.

In the recipe I have written to add 1 cup of chocolate chips, but if you want to mix things up a little, here are some ideas of combinations you could add:

• dark and white chocolate chunks
• chocolate pieces and chopped pecans
• chocolate and chopped almonds
• dark chocolate and chopped hazelnuts
• white chocolate and dried cranberries
• raisins and chopped walnuts
• two types of chopped nuts
• chopped dried apricots and chopped unsalted pistachios

Your imagination is your only limit! Just make sure that the fruits, nuts, and/or chocolate pieces are roughly the same size.

No special tools are required other than a cookie sheet, a bowl, a wooden spoon, and an oven. If you have a standing mixer or handheld mixer, it makes the job easier, but the cookies can be made without.

• 1/2 cup (120 g ) butter
• 1/4 cup ( 25 g ) white sugar
• 1/2 cup ( 100 g) brown sugar

• 1 egg
• 1 tsp vanilla essence

• 2 cups ( 240 g ) flour
• 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 1/2 tsp salt

• 1 cup (150 g ) chocolate chips

Heat the oven to 180 degrees C (350 degrees F).

With either a standing mixer, or a handheld mixer, cream the butter and sugar together until the mixture becomes pale and fluffy.

If you don't have a mixer, use your very strong arm to beat them with a wooden spoon.

Sift the flour, baking powder, and salt into the bowl with the creamed butter-sugar mixture.

Use a wooden spoon or a silicon spatula to mix everything together until you get a homogeneous mixture.

Add the chocolate chunks, and chopped nuts if using. Mix them in gently. I find that it is better to use your hands at this stage to mix the chocolate chunks in uniformly.

This is a photo to show you what your dough should look like once everything is mixed in.

Line a cookie sheet with baking paper.

Use a teaspoon, or your hands, to take walnut-sized pieces off the dough.

Roll each lump into a ball and place it on the cookie sheet.

Squash each ball with a fork to flatten it out.

Bake the cookies for 10 - 12 minutes until they start to turn a slightly golden-brown color.

Take the cookie tray out of the oven and leave the cookies to cool on it for 10 minutes.

Take the cookies off the tray and leave them on a wire cooling-rack to cool completely.

Pam's cookies will keep well in a sealed container for up to 5 days (though they have never lasted that long at our house. They often get eaten hot off the cookie tray!).