Saturday, February 28, 2009

Oatmeal cookies for a rainy day

Before today, I had never made oatmeal cookies of any kind. However, the weather and my curiosity came together quite nicely to encourage a pleasant experiment. In the span of 7 days, I ran across 2 separate oatmeal cookie recipes that I filed away "to try later." But when I woke up this morning and looked out the window, I knew today was the day. Besides, I had everything in the cabinet.

The first cookie recipe came from Smitten Kitchen - Crispy Salted Oatmeal White Chocolate Cookies. The second via Adam Roberts' cardamom fixation - "Baked" Oatmeal Cookies with Cardamom.

(sidenote: I cannot wait to order Baked: New Frontiers in Baking but I'm forcing myself to be patient because Bittman's Bible just came in the mail today!)

My end result was a wacky hybrid that just works.

I based my recipe's basic ingredients off of Deb's recipe, except I omitted the salt on top, halved her amount of white chocolate and added 1/2 cup of dried sweetened cherries, my nod to the Baked recipe. I was 4 Tablespoons short of the recommended butter (I ran out!) and in the end, I could tell.

All in all, delicious, and this recipe was a good excuse for me to try out my ability to sprinkle in some pictures. You let me know if it works.

White Chocolate Cherry Oatmeal Cookies
inspiration due Smitten Kitchen

Ingredients:

1 cup all-purpose flour
3/4 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon kosher salt
14 tablespoons unsalted butter, softened (I only used 10 T and could definitely tell. This is a recipe that needs the butter!)
1 cup sugar (I used 1/2 vanilla sugar and 1/2 regular)
1/4 cup packed light brown sugar
1 large egg
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 1/2 cups rolled oats
1/3-1/2 cup dried cherries, rough chopped (I tried to have even amounts of chocolate and cherries, so the amount is not exact)
1 white chocolate bar, chopped into small chunks (I used Green & Black's. Yum. Love their chocolate!)

To make the cookies:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Sift flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt into medium bowl.

In a large bowl, add white and brown sugars and butter (cut into large pieces). Beat butter and sugar together until fluffy, about 3-4 minutes. Scrape sides of bowl down and add egg and vanilla. Beat until incorporated.

Add flour and beat until incorporated and the dough is smooth.

Gradually add oats, white chocolate and cherries and mix until well incorporated.

(This step almost killed my hand mixer. If you aren't using a stand mixer, use your hands for this step. It works just as well and you aren't picking dough out from in between your mixer blades every 30 seconds.)

Use about 2 Tablespoons of the dough to make balls by rolling them between your palms. I ended up with 27 cookies, but yours may vary.

Space out dough on a baking sheet. You can use parchment or a Silpat if you have one. I spray my baking sheets down with canola oil. To each their own. Press the cookie balls down gently into rounds.

Bake for 13-16 minutes, rotating the baking sheet halfway through. You're aiming for a golden brown color.

Let cookies cool on the baking sheet for a minute when you remove them from the over before you transfer them to a cooling rack. It helps them stay together. I had a few cookies crumble on me before I realized this.


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