Condensed Milk and Chocolate Cookie Squares
Sweet treats for tired parents and hungry children, these cookies are ridiculously easy to make. Whip up a batch to enjoy for elevenses or to offer to guests with an afternoon cup of tea. Or make them with children as a simple recipe to bake together, although you’ll be fighting over who gets to lick the bowl!
I used to make these all the time when Clara was a baby and other first time parent friends would come round with their babies for mutual support and sustenance! I’d put Clara in her bouncy chair on the kitchen table where she could watch what I was doing and would talk and sing to her while making the cookie dough. I’ve carried on making the cookies over the years and in 2012 it would have been Felix in the bouncy chair, with Clara probably helping to mix the ingredients.
I used to try to create a proper cookie shape, but my batches always spread into each other and I wasn’t ever able to achieve those lovely American style individual cookies. So now I spread the whole mixture into a tin (mine’s approx 26 x 16 cm) and bake it as one batch before cooling and cutting into squares. It takes longer in the oven but is far less of a faff in general to make. The prep only takes about 15 minutes before you can slide the tray into the oven and get on with other jobs / play while waiting for them to cook.
Makes 16 squares, cooking time 40 minutes
Ingredients
200g caster sugar
200g unsalted butter, softened
4 tbsp condensed milk
350g (gluten free) self-raising flour
150g dark chocolate
Method
Pre-heat the oven to 150 degrees.
Cream together the butter and sugar until pale and then beat in the condensed milk.
Mix in the flour, bash the chocolate to break it into small chunks and then stir these into the soft dough.
Spread the mixture into a lined baking tray and bake for 15 minutes, turn the tray and bake for a further 15 minutes. At this point check on it and perhaps set the timer for another five minutes and then maybe even another five more. Your oven may be different to mine. The cookie tray bake should be golden, crisping slightly at the edges but still a little soft in the middle.
Remove from the oven and place the baking tray on a wire rack to allow to cool for a few minutes before lifting the whole lot out of the tin in it’s baking paper and setting on the wire rack to cool completely, then cut into squares. Try to resist the temptation to cut it before it’s properly cool as it will just break and crumble. There’s no harm in breaking off a tiny little corner to taste though, just to make sure it’s cooked, naturally.