It has become a tradition in our house, just before Xmas – the last day of school/nursey – a small group of little friends come to the house for what my boys call a party but really it is a chance for me to have fun cooking with kids.  Not literally of course!  I love the fun kids have making food.  Last Friday there were seven kids aged between 3 and 6 around my dining room table making Fudgy Wudgy Chocolate cookies – a brilliant Australian Womens Weekly recipe which uses cups rather than weighing, perfect for young children.  Chocolate cookies with raisins and chocolate chips that are chewy and very very yummy.  They had a ball (and so did I).  And there really wasn’t very much mess at all.  Honestly!  I wish I had taken some photos.

Fudgy Wudgy Chocolate Cookies Recipe

1. Preheat the oven to 180C/160C fan assist and line a couple of baking sheets with greaseproof paper.
2. Cream, using an electric whisk, 100g butter (any fat spread will work including reduced fat spreads with a fat content 60g/100g), 1 1/4 cups firmly packed brown sugar, 1 egg and 1 teaspoon vanilla extract in a big bowl.
3. Stir in 1 cup plain flour, 1/4 cup self-raising flour, 1 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda, 1/3 cup cocoa powder.
4. Stir in 1/2 cup raisins and 1/2 cup dark chocolate chips.  You can also add macadamia nuts or other nuts but when I am cooking with kids then I skip the nuts.
5. Drop rounded teaspoons onto the prepared trays with space for the cookies to spread.  Then pop them in the oven for 10 minutes.  Leave the cookies to stand for 5 minutes before transferring them to a wire cooling rack.

For festive fun or at a cooking themed party, once the cookies have cooled, the kids could have fun with some icing and decorate their cookies to take home.  These are quite indulgent cookies – not something to have too often but are simple and turn out fab, like a cross between a brownie and a cookie.