As a food photographer, when an urge for a shoot arises, something must be baked.
A childhood favourite – Super Rich Chocolate Temptations. Mama used to make these all the time, using craisins (dried cranberries) in place of raisins, and both dark and white chocolate. I definitely recommend using real chocolate. Those chocolate melts or drops you can buy, although they hold their shape nicely, will give the waxy taste (seeming as they are made mostly of wax) and will definitely take away from what should be an outstanding, chunky chocolate packed cookie.
I am currently in possession (borrowed possession) of a Speedlight Nikon flash which has been a total blast to shoot with. These were all taken in my dark studio using the mounted flash. I experimented with using a second light source and with bouncing the flash off all sorts of surfaces.
I found the only way to truly override strong shadows is to use a secondary light source, but even without it, when bouncing the flash off a wall, enough light was produced to flood the area without too much of a directional light.
How many bites does it take to find that chunk of warm oozing chocolate within the cookie to be used for photographing? I gave up after a good two or three..
Super Rich Chocolate Temptations
Makes 24
For a chewy biscuit, bake about 12 minutes. If you like a crunchier biscuit, bake about a further 5 minutes.
125g butter, chopped
1 tsp vanilla essence
1 ¼ cups (250g) firmly packed brown sugar
1 egg
1 1/4 cup (150g) plain flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1/3 cup (35g) cocoa
¾ cup (90g) chopped pecans, toasted
½ cup (85g) chopped craisins
½ cup (95g) white chocolate, chopped
½ cup (75g) dark chocolate, chopped
Beat butter, essence, sugar and egg in medium bowl with electric mixer until smooth. Stir in remaining ingredients; mix well. Drop slightly rounded tablespoons of mixture about 5cm apart onto greased oven trays. Bake in moderate oven about 12 minutes; cool on trays.
I used unsalted butter, which I something I very rarely do, and I only noticed after placing them on baking trays. Hence they received a good sprinkle of rock salt before baking.
The perfect treat to pack into a brown paper bag…
Label, and deliver to someone you appreciate.
Wow beautiful. Love how you’re experimenting with different light. Do you appreciate me? 😉
The flash looks like it works pretty well – these photos look great. And these cookies are on my to-do list now…
Photos look great – I think I need to get myself some alternative light sources! Perfect little Christmas presents! I’ll be making my own chocolaty presents next week – I can’t wait!
That’s got to be one of the best parts of Christmas eh – have fun!
Wow, awesome job with your borrowed flash, Christina! Photos turned out awesome. I am impressed with how you are working around the lack of daylight. Your chocolate temptations look delicious!!
Thanks Mel! So many decisions to make in order to continue the photography – I never knew it would be such a challenge!
Oh my Lord, I think I put on weight just looking at those photos! Amazing!
Good thing you run so much eh? These will give you plenty of energy!
Aspiration photos combined with a delicious recipe. Thanks.
Love reading everything you put on here X! I made these with cranberry and macadamia and called them christmas cookies and they went down a treat (pun unintended). Thanks 🙂
Jenny! Oh so nice to hear from you. They are great Christmas cookies, and cranberries definitly up the festivity. So pleased you enjoyed x