Baking for Beginners: Chocolate orange cookies

Chocolate oranges are as much a part of Christmas as mince pies, satsumas and walnuts, but it's only recently occurred to me that you can cook with them, too. The chocolate tastes even better when it's part-melted, so it's important not to over-cook these biscuits, but allow them to get all gooey inside.

Are YOU going all gooey inside yet? If so, these delicious cookies are no hassle to make.

Here's what you'll need:

• 250g salted butter, softened
• 140g caster sugar
• 1 egg yolk
• 2 tbsp vanilla extract
• 250g plain flour
• 50g cocoa powder
• Plain chocolate orange (or orange chocolate bar)

Equipment:

• large mixing bowl
• sillicone liners (optional but a great way to prevent crumbling) or baking tray
• wooden spoon

And here's what you'll need to do with it:

First, take your chocolate orange and crush, snap and slice it up until it's reduced to a bowl of orangey chocolate 'chips'.

Then mix the butter and sugar together in a large bowl, using the wooden spoon. Once it's all creamed together, add in the egg yolk and vanilla and beat till it's combined.

Then add the flour and cocoa, mixing everything together until it's a thick dough (you'll need to give up on the spoon and just get your hands dirty after half the flour's gone in!) Finally, add in the chocolate orange 'chips' you've made. Mix well so the chips are evenly distributed.

Scoop out the cookie dough to make roughly 12 balls, place these on your sillicone liner or well greased baking tray, and flatten.

Bake in the oven for 15-20 minutes on gas mark 4 (160C)

Remove cookies and leave to cool on a metal rack for approximately 20 minutes.

Enjoy!