Ok, I admit it. Spending the winter in London means that I don’t actually have Snow Days (let alone snow, it seems). But seeing so many of my friend’s Facebook updates and Instagram photos about them recently made we wish I did and I wondered what I would do if I would have a snowed in, stay at home, day.

First of all I would probably get up and bake a load of cookies and then snuggle up under a duvet, on the sofa, watching old black and white movies while munching my way through the cookies and warming myself with a vast pot of hot chocolate!

The cookies I would make are these ‘throw it all in’ ones, as you don’t need a set of specific ingredients but can use whatever you find in your store cupboard which is kind of important if you are snowed in. You can add any kind of chocolate, nuts, dried fruit – even sweets and pretzel pieces – to this basic cookie dough. Just make sure all is small or chopped down and the total amount makes 200g.

I had Brazil nuts, cranberries, peanut butter chips and a few white chocolate chips lying about so chucked those in and it was a great combo – but go crazy with your own ideas…

• 200g unsalted butter (softened)
• 150g caster sugar
• 150g light brown sugar
• 1 egg
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 325g self-raising flour
• 1 tsp of salt
• 200g mix of dark/white/milk chocolate chips or chunks/ chopped nuts of any kind / dried fruit such as cranberries or apricots or whatever else you fancy 

Cream the butter and all the sugar together until light and fluffy – it’s easiest to use an electric whisk for this. Add the egg and vanilla extract and beat again until combined.

Tip the flour along with the salt in and mix until all is well incorporated, then throw in your personal favourite mix of nuts/chocolate/dried fruit etc. and knead or stir it all together.

Cover with cling film and chill for at least 1 hour, so that the cookie dough firms up again. You can chill the dough overnight (or even up to 3 days) instead if you wish, apparently the longer chilling deepens the flavour.

Preheat the oven to gas mark 4 and line a baking sheet with baking paper. Using an ice cream scoop, form little balls of the cookie dough and place them on the baking sheet – with space in between as the cookies spread when they bake. You will therefore need to bake them in batches.

Bake for 15 minutes and transfer them straight to a cooling rack – but do this carefully as they will be soft. They will harden as they cool down but should stay a little chewy in the middle!