Friday, May 15, 2009

Hello Cookie: Salted White Chocolate Oatmeal Cookies

At first, this seems to be an unusual recipe because it takes traditional cookie goodness such as oats, sugar and white chocolate, and combines it with a touch of salt. Not that unusual, though, when you consider the popularity of fleur de sel caramels and salted caramel sauce.

That said, these salted white chocolate oatmeal cookies are absolutely wonderful. They look like Anzac biscuits but have a crunchy texture that is at odds with its chewy-looking exterior. Plus that hint of salt, love it. And they aren’t that rich, either – I managed to scoff 5 of them in no time at all!

By the way, the recipe says it will make 24. I used the exact ingredients and rolled the cookie balls as specified, and I ended up with 50. No matter, even more reason to nibble another one…

The original recipe is from
SmittenKitchen.com and my metric conversions are in brackets below.

Salted White Chocolate Oatmeal Cookies

Makes about 50

Ingredients
1 cup all-purpose (plain) flour
¾ teaspoon baking powder
½ teaspoon baking soda
¼ teaspoon table salt
14 tablespoons (198.6 grams) unsalted butter, slightly softened
1 cup sugar
¼ cup packed light brown sugar
1 large egg
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 ½ cups rolled oats (I used quick oats)
6 ounces (170.25 grams) good-quality white chocolate, chopped
½ teaspoon flaky sea salt (like Maldon or fleur de sel), for sprinkling on top

Method
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees (175 deg C). Line baking sheet with baking paper.

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

3. Beat butter and sugars until light and fluffy. Scrape down bowl with rubber spatula, then add egg and vanilla and beat until incorporated. Scrape down bowl again. Add flour mixture gradually and mix until just incorporated and smooth. Gradually add oats and white chocolate and mix until well incorporated.

4. Roll about 2 tablespoons of the dough into balls, then place on lined baking sheets about 2 ½ inches (6cm) apart. Using fingertips, gently press down each ball to about ¾-inch (1.8cm) thickness.

5. Sprinkle a flake or two of sea salt on each cookie (I sprinkled a lot more, because I like salt!)

6. Bake until cookies are deep golden brown, about 13 to 16 minutes, rotating baking sheet halfway through. Transfer cookies to wire rack to cool.

Recipe adapted from SmittenKitchen.com

Ingredients and preparation

Press down on cookies before baking; adding a few flakes of salt


So many cookies, so little time!


Lovely!

11 comments:

  1. Yummo! Thanks for the detailed recipe! You are a sweetie and so are the cookies! ;)

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  2. Ooh these look so yum! I really like the idea of salty-sweet cookies. And that happens to me all the time too-I always end up with more cookies than most recipes say! Bonus!

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  3. It's great that the recipe made a double quantity! The oats and white chocolate are a nice combo of texture and sweetness.

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  4. Helloooo Cookiieee, nice to meet you :) Oh what was that? You want me to eat you? Oohhh if you insistt! *nom nom nom nom*

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  5. I can imagine how good the added salt would be! And just a serendipitous bonus that it made 50 ;)

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  6. these look like a lot of reward for not very much labour. i am going to make them tomorrow, with milk chocolate. thanks, lady!

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  7. I really like the idea of the sweet with the salty.

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  8. The use of salt for something like this doesn't seem TOO out of the ordinary, well not nowadays in my mind.

    Though the salt works well from a flavour perspective, how are they like, say, after the 5th one? Is there like a law of diminishing returns whereby the more you eat, the less you can eat due to the salt content? Maybe I'm not communicating the point of my question effectively but hope you get where I'm coming from.

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  9. Hi Tiffany – Thanks so much, you’re lovely!

    Hi Stephcookie – it’s strange that we always end up with more than the recipe, isn’t it? Maybe it’s the way the dough is mixed or something. But I definitely won’t say no to more cookies!

    Hi Arwen – white chocolate turns caramelly when it is melted, so yes, these are lovely and sweet (and sort of healthy due to the oats).

    Hi FFichiban – oh, you speak Cookie! That’s a very useful skill to have!

    Hi Lorraine – 50 cookies – it was meant to be!

    Hi bowb – my pleasure. I like easy recipes, and the only hard thing about this one was rolling all those balls. Nice reward, though! Hope yours turn out just as well.

    Hi Megan – sweet and salty is certainly a perfect combination.

    Hi Simon – I know what you mean, but there should only be a *hint* of salt sprinkles on the top. That way, you get a little burst of salty surprise that goes so well with the smooth-tasting chocolate.

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  10. i ended up rolling only 36 balls -- must have been bigger than yours. ;P but delicious, with milk chocolate. six thumbs up (that's two each for a three-person household)

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  11. hi bowb - Cool! I'm so glad you all liked them.

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