Oatmeal, Pecan & Choc Chip Cookie

11 mins

13 mins

Can’t believe how long I’ve been ignoring my blog, or more like OUR BLOG if the other writer is still around to update, yes, I’m talking to you Banya~

I have suddenly had a brainwave that I odd to try out and train myself for a marathon someday. This is because I’ve been only running on 2-6 hours sleep for coming close to 3 months now. I had a long battle with assignments, and now exams (+ falling down the stairs and a fever in between all of that jazz). It’s really been pushing my limits both mentally and physically. I never thought I could last that long (trust me, when I was 18 I could but I'm VERY far from that age right now!).

In addition, I'm now busy playing hide and seek with my dissertation supervisor…my fear in stepping in the school of law is so immense I’ve really been avoiding that area of the building. I’m even avoiding that escalator that lead to the school…argggh…pathetic~~ So I've ended up writing an email to him and ask to take leave for an extra semester so I can squeeze out this painful labour of dissertation. I've yet to wait for his favourable response and really, it better be favourable!

So – question for today is “what does a girl do when she’s under so much stress and with so little time in her hand?” The answer is “bake some cookies!!” yes, that’s right! I’m a poor student who can’t afford for holidays and retail therapy so let’s just bring on some baking therapy!

This time, what will be in our cookies? Oatmeal, pecan AND CHOCOLATE CHIPSSSSSSS!!! No offence to raisin, but I’ll take the chocolate chips instead please! Again, I’ve reduced the amount of sugar because my lovely mother loves complaining about my cookies / dessert being too sweet! So if you like your cookies sweeter, by all means add more sugar in it.

I must say that usually I’m not a fan of cinnamon but I quite liked the taste of it, if you eat it fresh the scent doesn’t really come out as strong as when it’s cooled. My mother, my meanest critic (yet) has “ordered” me not to put in cinnamon and reduce the amount of orange zest next time. So I’m thinking to halve the cinnamon and orange zest by half next time. This little monster if you want on the crispier side, then you can flatten it slightly at around 6 minutes with a spatula, and bake it for a little longer (but watch out for burnt cookies!). I did two batches, one at 11 minutes and the other at 13 minutes to test the texture. I like the 11 minutes one better at fresh but preferred the 13 minutes one when cooled. Cooking it’s all about trial and error…let’s get baking.

Ingredients:

• 8 tablespoons unsalted butter, at room temperature


• ½ cup sugar (white / caster)


• ¾ cup light brown sugar, firmly packed


• 1 teaspoon salt1 teaspoon vanilla extract


• 1 large eggs, 1 egg yolk


• ½ cup bread flour


• 1 cup multi-purpose flour


• 1 teaspoon baking soda


• 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon


• 1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg1 cup quick-cooking oats


• 1 ½ cups chopped pecans


• 2 teaspoons freshly grated orange zest


• 12 ounces semisweet chocolate chips

Instruction:

1. Using an electric mixer to beat the butter in a bowl until light and fluffy.


2. Add both sugars, salt, and vanilla, and beat until well mixed, about 3 minutes.


3. Stir in egg and yolk.


4. Then sift together the flour, baking soda, cinnamon, and nutmeg in a separate bowl.


5. Add half of the flour mixture to the butter with the mixer on low speed. Once the flour has been incorporated, add the second half.


6. Stir in the oats, pecans, orange zest, and chocolate chips


7. Put the mix in the fridge for an hour (can be kept overnight) – I did not bake this fresh so I can’t compare the result but I’d experiment next time when I have more time.


8. Preheat oven to 170˚C


9. Line a baking paper onto the baking tray. Drop the dough, by the tablespoon, onto the cookie sheet and bake for 10-13 minutes or until golden. (the cooking time really depends on your oven!!!)


10. Remove from the oven and cool the cookies on a rack.


11. Cookies can be store at room temperature in a cookie jar or any airtight container.

Keeps gettin' better and better - Leite's chocolate chip cookies

I just have no idea why I am so obssessed with chocolate chip cookies. I am not American and I did not grow up or study in America. I certainly was not brought up on those. My mom did bake them for me time to time, but not so much that I should be obssesed with it.

I baked chocolate chip cookies many many times, tried classic Toll House recipe and Jaque Torres's many times. But I could never get the ones I pictured in my mind until I tried Golden Syrup chocolate chip cookies. Even than, I had to squash the cookies a bit to get the shape I wanted. Then I came across Smitten Kitchen's. Leite is the one who actually came up with the recipe, and the pictures in Smitten Kitchen seemed very nice, so I gave that a go.

It was perfect. I am so happy with it that I can confidently sell those delicious cookies at the cafe that I dream to have one day. (Wishful thinking it is)
It was buttery, cripsy, had a slight touch of toffe. It stayed chewy after cooling down. Crackly, rippled top was attractive.

I did make some change from the original recipe. I did not add all the chocolate I was supposed to, but instead, put in about 80% of the original recipe. Not that I have anything against chocolate, but I always felt that Torres' recipe is a bit overloaded with chocolate.

Leite’s Consummate Chocolate Chip Cookies
Adapted from Smitten Kitchen / David Leite via The New York Times

*** I halved the original recipe. It makes around 16-17 cookies.

1 cups minus 1 TSP cake flour
5/6 cups bread flour
5/8 teaspoons baking soda
3/4 teaspoons baking powder
3/4 teaspoons coarse salt
140g unsalted butter
5/8 cup light brown sugar
1/2 cup plus 1 TSP granulated sugar
1 large egg
1 teaspoons natural vanilla extract
200g bittersweet chocolate disks or fèves, at least 60 percent cacao content
Sea salt

1. Sift flours, baking soda, baking powder and salt into a bowl. Set aside.

2. Using a mixer fitted with paddle attachment, cream butter and sugars together until very light, about 5 minutes. Add eggs, one at a time, mixing well after each addition. Stir in the vanilla. Reduce speed to low, add dry ingredients and mix until just combined, 5 to 10 seconds. Drop chocolate pieces in and try to incorporate them without breaking them. Press plastic wrap against dough and refrigerate for 24 to 36 hours. [Dough may be used in batches, and can be refrigerated for up to 72 hours.]

3. When ready to bake, preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper or a nonstick baking mat. Set aside.

4. Scoop 6 3 1/2-ounce mounds of dough (the size of generous golf balls) onto baking sheet, making sure to turn horizontally any chocolate pieces that are poking up; it will make for a more attractive cookie. Sprinkle lightly with sea salt and bake until golden brown but still soft, 18 to 20 minutes. Transfer sheet to a wire rack for 10 minutes, then slip cookies onto another rack to cool a bit more. Repeat with remaining dough, or reserve dough, refrigerated, for baking remaining batches the next day. Eat warm, with a big napkin.

Keeps gettin' better - Chewy Chocolate Chip Cookies

If you have been reading my blog, you must be very familiar with my obsession about chocolate chip cookies. Till now, I thought Jaque Torres'schocolate chip cookie was it, but I found very simple but very satisfying - crispy on the outside, chewy centre- recipe which uses Lyle's Golden Syrup.

Finding the recipe was out of pure luck. I was searching recipes for sticky toffee pudding (my brother's request) but did not find any. So I decided to look for golden syrup pudding instead in memory of boarding school meals. I came across Mademoiselle M's recipe. in the process. It does not use any eggs, so I was a bit apprehensive at the beginning, but this seems to be the recipes I have been waiting for. I am so happy with this that I wish there was a school fete to sell these.





The recipe yields 12 cookies.

Ingredients

175g flour+ 1tsp baking powder and a pinch of baking soda
75g golden caster sugar
2 TSP Golden Syrup
100g butter
75g chocolate chips

Preheat the oven to 180°C.

1. Mix soft butter and sugar.
2. Add goden syrup.
3. Mix flour with baking powder and baking soda. Add to 2.
4. Add chocolate chips.
5. Divide the dough into 12 balls. Bake for around 12 minutes. The cookies may look uncooked, but when it cools down, it will be OK.

Enjoy them warm with cold milk or coffee. When the cookies cool down, the flavour of caramely golden syrup comes through more. I think the cookies will be as delicious without chocolate chips. Pecans and cranberry will be good substitutes.

Chocolate chip cookies, peanut butter cookies

Cookies are definitely more fattening than airy sponge cakes (without rich frosting). But there is something about buttery, chewy, chocolatey cookies that I can't help dreaming about. I cook to de-stress, and mindless mixing that does not require me to think is just perfect. Besides, sharing food is good. You share love and at the same time, calories. :P

The chocolate chip cookie below is made following the recipe I tried last time, except that I used caster sugar in place of granulated sugar. Click here for the recipe.

I should really consider replacing dark chocolate with semi-sweet ones. Sometimes I can't tell if the chocolates are dark or burnt. Also, I will reduce the amount of chocolate.

Another cookie I like is peanut butter cookies, those crumbly, peanutty and slightly salty cluster of peanut butter, chocolate and sugar. Sounds scary, right? But that does put me off from eating those crumbly morsels.

Adapted from Le Pétrin. Click here for the original recipe.

250g smooth peanut butter (I used skippy)
1 egg, lightly beaten
150g light brown caster sugar
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
100g dark chocolate, chopped
50g shelled peanuts
fleur de sel for decoration (optional)
Preheat the oven to 175°C

1. Mix peanut butter, sugar and baking soda.
2. Add egg and mix well.
3. Fold in chocolate chips and peanuts. Be careful not to break.
4. Line the baking tray. Place scoops of mixture.
5. Bake for 14 mins or less.
6. Let the cookies cool completely before removing them from the tray. If not, they will break.
7. Enjoy with a glass of cold milk.

In search of the perfect chocolate chip cookies

An Australian food critique once said that if you master 10 dishes, they will serve you well for the rest of your life. And I agree with her. So I thought of 10 dishes I want to master. Chocolate chip cookies top my list.

People have different opinions about what chocolate chip cookies should be about. Some like it hot, fresh out of the oven, or cooled at room temperature. Some like it crispy to the centre, some like it crispy on the edge but soft and chewy in the middle. I think it tastes nice warm or cool, but I like mine to have a chewy centre.

Chocolate chip cookie is probably the first baked goods people make in their lives as it is child friendly, simple yet very rewarding. I baked it countless times, but never achieved the perfect stage of cripsy edges with soft centre. I googled over and over, but never met a recipe that I liked. Until yesterday, that is.

I read a lot of blogs, and it appears to me that Jacque Torres recipe is the latest craze. Since it was said that it yields chewy soft centred cookies, I decided to give it a go. It was perfect. I feel forever indebted to him. His recipe requires minimum 24 hour chilling. This process is said to help sugar to absorb fat and liquid.

This is the original recipe but I halved the portion.

I used Montezuma's Organic Cooking Chocolate Couverture

• cake flour 120g
• bread flour 120g
• baking powder 3/4 teaspoons
• coarse salt 3/4 teasoons
• butter 160g
• light brown sugar 140g
• granulated sugar 110g
• 1 large egg
• 1 teaspoons natural vanilla extract
• 280g chocolate disks or fèves, at least 60 percent cacao content
• Sea salt.

1. Sift flours, baking soda, baking powder and salt into a bowl. Set aside.

2. Using a mixer fitted with paddle attachment, cream butter and sugars together until very light, about 5 minutes. Add eggs, one at a time, mixing well after each addition. Stir in the vanilla. Reduce speed to low, add dry ingredients and mix until just combined, 5 to 10 seconds. Drop chocolate pieces in and incorporate them without breaking them. Press plastic wrap against dough and refrigerate for 24 to 36 hours. Dough may be used in batches, and can be refrigerated for up to 72 hours.

3. When ready to bake, preheat oven to 175°C degrees. (350°F)

Line a baking sheet with parchment paper or a nonstick baking mat. Set aside.

4. Scoop 6 3 1/2-ounce mounds of dough (the size of generous golf balls) onto baking sheet, making sure to turn horizontally any chocolate pieces that are poking up; it will make for a more attractive cookie. Sprinkle lightly with sea salt and bake until golden brown but still soft, 18 to 20 minutes.

Transfer sheet to a wire rack for 10 minutes, then slip cookies onto another rack to cool a bit more. Repeat with remaining dough, or reserve dough, refrigerated, for baking remaining batches the next day.

Eat warm, with a big napkin.

Eat it warm with a glass of cold milk, or at room temperature with a hot coffee.