Zesty South Indian Kitchen: Spiced Mini Oat Meal Cookies

Friday, January 21, 2011

Spiced Mini Oat Meal Cookies

Oat meal cookies are a favorite to my hubby dear, he always asks me to make some. He wants it to munch while break in between office hours. I too like oat meal cookies; however I am yet to find the right recipe which I can fell in love, so I was not making them for long time. Everybody has mom’s or grandmother’s recipe to try for various baked dishes. I didn’t grow up with any baked goodies, and as a result there is no recipe for me to try from mom or grandma. With certain dishes I always encounter failures. I make it with great expectations but the end result is not good and finally they go directly to garbage bin. Among the first to fail a few times is the corn bread. I have tried two different recipes of corn bread; however in the end they taste the same being not good.

Oatmeal is the main breakfast in our house, hubby like to have it with walnuts, almonds, raisins and cranberry. I and my little princess want to have it with fruit depending upon little one’s choice. I make dosa, idly too however they are our dinner staples rather than breakfast dish expect during weekend.

You will be wondering what is big deal about oatmeal cookies. If you search the internet it is flooded with recipes, however some dumps sugar, some butter and some makes chewy and some makes crispy. Finally I got the recipe from Deb’s smitten kitchen . I have tried her recipes earlier and they came out good. Asked hubby what you want? Chewy ones or Crispy ones, his answer was quick chewy ones. In the store bought ones you won’t find any spices. So in order to make this special, I added some ground ginger, cloves and cinnamon which is not in the original recipe. Raisins are a good companion of oat meal cookies, for change I add half raisins and cranberries. Dried cranberries have all the goodness, sweet, tanginess and color.

As this is the test drive, I made bite size version of oatmeal cookies, needless to say I was happy to find a delicious trustworthy recipe which is going be in my kitchen forever. Here goes the recipe.

One year ago: Rajasthani Bhindi/ Okra Stirfry

Print recipe from here

What you need

Recipe adapted from Smitten kitchen

All purpose flour: 1/3 cup
Rolled oats: ¾ cup
Brown sugar: 1/3 cup
Unsalted butter: ¼ cup
Egg: ½ of one egg
Baking soda: ¼ teaspoon
Ground cinnamon: ½ teaspoon
Ground cloves: ¼ teaspoon
Ground ginger: ¼ teaspoon
Salt: 1/8 teaspoon
Golden raisins: ¼ cup
Cranberries: 1/8 cup

How I made

In the bowl of an electric mixer, or by hand, beat the butter and sugar just until soft and fluffy. Continue to beat until smooth, stopping the mixer to scrape down any butter clinging to the sides of the bowl. Stir in egg and vanilla extract.

In a separate bowl, whisk the flour, baking soda, cinnamon, ground ginger, ground cloves and salt together. Stir this into the butter/sugar mixture. Stir in first oats, then cranberries and raisins.

Keep the cookie dough in refrigerator for about 20-30 minutes or until firm.

Preheat the oven to 350 F (180 C) if you are using a convection oven reduce the temperature to 325F and line two baking sheets with parchment paper.

After chilling time, scope out the cookies two inches apart on a parchment-lined baking sheet.

Bake them for 10 to 12 minutes (your baking time will vary, depending on your oven and how cold the cookies were going in), taking them out when golden at the edges but still a little undercooked-looking on top. Let them sit on the hot baking sheet for five minutes before transferring them to a rack to cool.