Thursday, December 25, 2008

White Chocolate, Cherry and Oatmeal Cookies


I have been baking a Christmas cake for the past two years and it has become nice way to bring in the holiday spirit - right from marinating the fruit to baking it on Christmas Eve. This was the first time in the last eight years we weren't at the our friend's house in Chennai for Christmas - but the cake still managed to please new friends. And the special part of baking it this year was that a couple of months back I got to meet my friend in London who had given me this recipe some years back. We have only been emailing each other for almost 8 years now so it was wonderful to actually get to meet her!



This year, I also baked some cookies - adapted this recipe which was itself adapted from this one
from Smitten Kitchen who adapted it from Cook's Illustrated. I love crispy cookies much more than the chewy ones so I loved the idea of these. They are actually not so much crispy rather than this kind of absolutely gorgeous vehicle to transport some rich chocolate and oatey goodness into your mouth!! I did away with the sea salt and reduced the oatmeal, threw in some dried cherries and Voila! - absolutely delicious cookies. I had to stop myself from eating the dough while waiting for the first batch to cook :)

Sending these cookies to Neivedyam's Cookie Baking Event which is being hosted by Sharmi.

White Chocolate, Cherry and Oatmeal Cookies

Ingredients:

Flour - 2 cups
Oats - 1 cup (I used quick cooking oats)
Baking powder - 3/4 tsp
Baking soda - 1/2 tsp
Butter - 200gms
White chocolate(chopped) - 170 gms
Egg -1
Vanilla essence - 1 tsp
Dried cherries - 50gms
Sugar - 1 cup

Method:

1. Cream the butter and sugar in a large bowl till smooth.
2. Put the chopped chocolate into a glass bowl and place it inside a bowl of heated water and microwave in 30 second intervals till melted and smooth.
3. Beat the egg and add to the creamed butter and sugar mixing lightly till combined.
4. Sift the flour with the baking powder and baking soda and then add gradually to the egg mixture.
5. Add the vanilla essence and the melted chocolate to the bowl and combine with a wooden spatula.
6. Refrigerate the mixture for about half an hour so that it can be shaped into balls - do not skip this step!
7. Pre heat the oven to 180C (350F), cut butter paper to size and spread on a baking tray.
8. Shape the cookie dough into balls, flatten slightly and place on the baking tray atleast 2 inches apart (they will spread and flatten as they bake). Don't handle the cookie dough for too long since the chocolate and butter will start melting.
9. Bake for 15 minutes. Remove the butter paper with the cookies on it and set aside to cool. They are very fragile before they cool so don't try to remove them from the butter paper when hot.
10. Bake more batches in the same way till the dough is used up.

16 comments:

Cham said...

Ha ha are u eating the dough? Cool u should have fun with ur friend! Happy Holidays to u and ur family!

sra said...

Happy New Year to you, Miri!

Raaga said...

happy new year :-)

I live in Gurgaon and work in Delhi (almost NOIDA). So, meeting up for lunch isn't really an option :-)

But do let's catch up sometime.

onlineraga@gmail.com

Miri said...

Oof! what a bother - work does come in the way of real life doesn't it ;)
Will mail you!

Rajani said...

sounds like an absolutely perfect vehicle to cookie heaven. sounds good enough to want to make it now - but no oats at home. grrr... anyway,was also checking your fruitcake recipe out. looks yum too... for your question on the mince - I made a christmas fruitcake with some of it. and will be making some tarts/pies with the rest. its already belated but it'll be my first time.

Rajani said...

miri - a very happy new year 2009 to you and your family !

Anonymous said...

Looks wonderful.. Nothing like baking for loved ones :) Have a safe new year!

Cham said...

Happy New Year to u and ur family, Miri !

Meera said...

Happy New Year, to you & yours!!

Leon said...

Hi Miri, can I make these in microwave's convection mode because I don have a traditional OTG?

Miri said...

Leon - my oven is a microwave combination oven too and ALL the baked stuff on this blog have been made in the convection setting.

As far as I have seen, there is no difference between a traditional OTG and the convection setting in a microwave setting.

Leon said...

Thanks so much Miri:) I am so excited to try out these recipes!

Leon said...

And one more question, where do you buy your bakewares from? Its so difficult to find good quality bakewares in India. I live in Bangalore, any online store where I can buy them from?

Miri said...

Hi Leon,
I have always bought my bakeware at local shops - in Mumbai, Dadar and Crawford market were good bets, In Chennai I picked them up at a local crockery shop. Now in Delhi - I see them at most vessel shops/crockery shops/-you know the kind where you get everything from flasks to buckets etc?
You could ask at your local steel shop or crockery shop and they will be able to point you to a place where you can get these....I havent bought anything online so wouldnt know about it....

Glad to answer your questions, next time you have a query, do refer to the dish you are commenting on, since when I see the comments to approve them, I have no clue which post they pertain to - since this post was one of my recent ones I could find your comment....
Or better still - you could mail me on peppercornmill@gmail.com! :)

Happy baking!!

Leon said...

That's so sweet of you to answer all my queries Miri, thanks a lot:)

I had bought some from Nilgiris but they were too thin and I didn't know how to use convection mode so my cake turned out to be a disaster. Your cakes look heavenly and I was surprised when you said they were all made in convection mode, so I still have some hope:)

Thanks for providing me your email ID, I'll definitely email you.

Have a great day:)

Miri said...

My pleasure Leon - don't give up that easily....just keep reading some good baking blogs for tips or even websites like the Joy of Cooking which have good suggestions. I'm sure you will be able to bake as well as you want after a few tries.

Raji