I firmly believe cold and dark January evenings are best spent baking indoors. You need something sweet and understanding to lift you. That’s where these cookies come in: virtuously light and fluffy, like a cake in the middle, but with a crunchy exterior that gently crumbles.

I made mine with white chocolate although if you prefer milk or dark chocolate then go for it! Makes 10 – 12 cookies.

125g butter + a bit extra for greasing
75g golden caster sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
3 tbsp golden syrup
200g plain flour
½ tsp baking powder
½ tsp bicarbonate of soda
100g white chocolate (I like to use 1 bar of Green and Black’s White Chocolate) or a pack of chocolate chips.

Preheat the oven to 180°C.

Soften the butter and mix it together with the sugar initially with a spoon until smooth and creamy, and then with an electric whisk until pale and fluffy. Add the glorious gloops of golden syrup and vanilla extract and stir again.

Sift in the flour, baking powder and bicarbonate of soda and stir to form a dough.

Break the chocolate into small chunks and add to the dough and stir slowly, making sure the dough picks up every chunk of chocolate. Grease out an oven dish with a bit of butter.

Form the cookie dough into balls about the size of a cherry tomato and gently flatten onto the prepared oven dish, leaving lots of space for them to grow in the oven. Bake for 12 – 15 minutes until golden and risen to the occasion: there should be a carpet of cookies in the oven dish!

Fluffy and absolutely delicious. Enjoy warm with a large mug of hot chocolate. They will keep well for a week in an airtight container in the fridge, although obviously you’ll have to really exercise all forms of self-restraint for them to last that long!