Chocolate Cointreau Torte aka orgasm on a plate

This is the recipe you need to make when you want something simple to make but drop dead gorgeous in yer mouth. It's ridiculously simple to make but it tastes amazing. It's based on St Delia's Chocolate truffle torte.

For 10-12 portions you need
300g plain chocolate
150g milk chocolate
600ml double cream
75ml liquid glucose
75ml cointreau
100g amaretti biscuits, crushed

Begin by melting the chocolates and glucose together in a bain marie. Leave to cool for 5 mins.

Whip the cream to floppy, no more. If you go to soft peaks the torte will be too difficult to mix and loose the wonderfully soft texture you want.

Line a 23cm springform tin with baking paper and oil the base and sides. Sprinkle over the biscuit crumbs.

Once the cream is whipped, mix half of it into the chocolate, then mix in the rest of the cream. Mix thoroughly then scrape into the tin. Cover and chill for at least 2-3 hours. Best served with fresh fruit or lashings and lashings of single cream.

"Millie's" Cookies (soft squidgy cookies)

These cookies are ridiculously easy to make but they taste AMAZING. You can alter the additions with whatever you fancy or have to hand. I am in use up my store cupboards before we move mode at the moment so we had macadamia nut, cranberries and white chocolate and plain chocolate chip for the boy who refused the extra addition of ginger or apricots, boo.

The recipe is adapted from this one.

For about 36 cookies you need
250g butter, softened
250g caster sugar
200g soft light brown sugar
2 tsp vanilla bean paste
450g self raising flour
2 eggs

For the macadamia, cranberry and white chocolate cookies you also need
75g chopped macadamia nuts
75g dried cranberries
100g white chocolate chunks

For the plain chocolate chip cookies you also need
100g plain chocolate chips

Begin by creaming the butter and sugars in a free standing mixer for 3-4 mins until light and fluffy. Add the vanilla and eggs and mix thoroughly. Add the flour and mix well.

If you're making just one sort of cookie then add your chosen additions to the dough and work in thoroughly. If, like me, you wanted to do more than one sort simply halve the dough and add your ingredients to each bowl, mixing well.

Onto lined baking sheets, place spoonfuls of the dough, well spaced apart. You don't need to squish them down as they'll do this naturally as they cook.

Bake at 175 degrees for 10 mins until they are starting to go a light brown colour. Leave to cool for 2-3 mins on the tray before attempting to remove as they will be VERY soft. Leave to cool for a further 5 mins or so then try not to eat an entire batch in one afternoon. They freeze well and retain their chewiness upon defrosting. Nomtastic.