All Cakes Considered - Melissa Gray [53]
6. Using a teaspoon, drop the cookie dough onto the prepared baking sheets so they’re evenly spaced, about 9 cookies per sheet.
7. Bake the first sheet of cookies for about 10 minutes, until golden brown.
8. Transfer the cookies to a rack to cool and put the next batch in the oven.
A winner from Shelia Lukins’s U.S.A. Cookbook and a favorite of my father, my father-in-law, and my cake-hating husband, all of whom are named James, oddly enough. My brother, also a James, prefers heavy pound cake to all else, so no cookies for him. My nephew is a James, too, but he hasn’t developed baked-goods preferences yet. I’ll keep you posted. And, by the way, my son is named Thomas, not James.
This is an aromatic cookie, what with the brown sugar and spices. The only change I made to Shelia’s recipe was the addition of butterscotch morsels, which give cookie-eaters an occasional extra-sweet surprise.
Salty Oatmeal Cookies
* * *
YOU’ll NEED
A medium saucepan
Parchment paper
2 baking sheets
A metal spatula
3 tablespoons unsalted butter
3 cups old-fashioned rolled oats (not quick-cooking)
¾ cup butter-flavored Crisco shortening
1 cup light brown sugar
½ cup sugar
1 teaspoon baking powder
¼ teaspoon baking soda
¼ teaspoon salt
½ teaspoon ground cinnamon
2 large eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
½ teaspoon coconut extract
1¾ cups rice flour
Kosher salt, for sprinkling
1. In a medium saucepan, melt the butter. Remove from the heat and stir in the oats. Set aside.
2. With the mixer, beat the shortening on medium-high speed until light and fluffy. Scrape down the sides of the bowl and add the sugars gradually, beating until mixed.
3. In a separate bowl, dry whisk the baking powder, baking soda, salt, and cinnamon together. Add to the creamed mixture and beat until incorporated.
4. Add the eggs, vanilla extract, and coconut extract, beating until blended.
5. Reduce the mixer speed to low and add the oatmeal and the rice flour, scraping down the sides of the bowl and beating until just incorporated. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and refrigerate the dough for at least 1 hour.
6. About 15 minutes before you’re ready to bake, center a rack and preheat the oven to 375 degrees F. Cut out parchment paper to fit the cookie sheets.
7. Form the dough into balls the size of a golf ball and place on the baking sheets about 2 inches apart. Flatten the balls slightly and sprinkle generously with kosher salt.
8. Bake one sheet of cookies at a time for 15 minutes, or until the cookies are puffed and starting to turn golden brown.
9. With a spatula, transfer the cookies to a cooling rack.
OK, so there’s this snooty little high-priced Asian-esque eatery in Washington, DC, where they serve a lot of tea. Some folks love it. I hate it. I always leave feeling hungry and not good enough because I’m too plebeian to be satisfied with a finger-sized portion of meat over three pieces of shredded lettuce and some bean sprouts. I also leave feeling amazingly cheap because I think paying more than $1.75 for a cup of tea is ridiculous. But that’s just me. I have issues. You’re reading this book and you know that. We’re friends, you and I.
Well, this place also has these incredible Salty Oatmeal Cookies. I usually can’t stand salty snacks, but BOY are these things dee-licious! They’re big, they’re doughy, they’re sweet, they’re cinnamony, they’re salty. Thing is, the people who make these cookies for the restaurant won’t give out the recipe.
In comes Leigh Lambert, staff writer for the Washington Post. She writes an article chronicling her attempt to crack the Salty Oatmeal Cookie Code. Trouble is, you read the article thinking you are going to end up with a recipe that was close to what you could buy (at the cost of a donor kidney on the black market) at the snooty little high-priced Asian-esque eatery. WRONG! After much searching Leigh settles on the cookie recipe that works for her. I tried it and it tastes like every oatmeal cookie I’ve ever had, except it’s dusted with salt.
I was