Natural world

Chocolate chirpie chip cookies

Ingredients

1 cup flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
100g butter
½ cup white sugar
½ cup brown sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla essence
2 eggs
1 cup dry-roasted crickets
300g chocolate chips
1 cup chopped nuts

Preparation

Mix the flour, baking soda and salt. In a separate bowl, cream together the butter, white and brown sugar and vanilla essence. Beat in the eggs. Stir in the flour mixture and the crickets gradually, then add the chocolate chips and nuts.

With a teaspoon, place small heaps of the mixture on a baking tray. Bake in a pre-heated oven (180°C) for 10 minutes.

Notes

There are 1,462 recorded species of edible insects in the world but crickets are the most popular and are high in protein.

To prepare crickets for cooking, first store them for a while in the refrigerator to slow them down. Then purge their guts for 24 hours, either by starving them or by allowing them to eat only apple or potato.

Warning !

All the recipes given here are based on traditional dishes eaten by people over many generations. There are small risks when eating insects, so it is recommended that:

• Nobody with an allergy to shellfish, chocolate or dust should try these recipes.
• All insects should be prepared exactly as described and thoroughly cooked before being eaten.
• Only the insects mentioned in the recipes should be used, as some other species are not edible. Please take care not to eat or even touch a hairy caterpillar in Britain.

All Illustrations by Steve Roberts