Cranberry cookie -- definitely an irresistible snack for the health conscious (if you can ignore the amount of sugar that is compressed in a little piece of cookie heh).
So this recipe was found by my friend, S online -- Good Food, Shared. It is a pretty cool blog with step-by-step tutorial recipes, mainly pastries and desserts. Will revisit the blog for more!
Recipe extracted from Good Food, Shared [Please refer to the awesome link for step-by-step description :)]
Ingredients:
150g butter
125g soft light brown sugar
100g caster sugar
2tsp vanilla extract
1 Large egg, straight from the fridge
1 Large egg yolk (also from the fridge)
300g plain flour
1/2 tsp bicarbonated soda
150g dried cranberries
200g white chocolate
Steps:
1. Preheat the oven to 170ºC
2. Line either one large or two smaller baking sheets with baking paper and set aside.
3. Melt the butter, set aside to cool slightly- this prevents it from cooking the eggs. Mix the two sugars together then pour the now slightly cool melted butter and mix until the mixture is well combined.
4. Add the vanilla extract and the eggs, mix slowly at first then increase to full speed.
5. Mix on high for 3-5 minutes until the mixture is pale and creamy. Weigh the plain flour, add the bicarbonate of soda and give a quick stir to combine.
6. Add the flour in two batches to the egg batter on the lowest speed and mix enough to just combine.
7. Meanwhile roughly chop the white chocolate into thumbnail sized pieces.
[we bought chocolate chips so there was no need to chop. However, due to Singapore's sweltering weather they quickly melted into unfavourable lumps]
8. Add the dried cranberries and the white chocolate to the cookie dough, barely mix together. Overworking the cookie dough will lead to tough cookies.
[I guessed we really over-mixed it. Would come to that later.]
10. Place the cookies about 4cm apart as they will spread while baking. Bake in the center of the oven for 14 minutes or until they lightly toasted around the edges and a light golden colour.
[and G decided to be creative and mould the dough into heart shapes]
12. Cool completely on a wire rack.
[S warned us that these were not pressed cookies, therefore the shape would not stay. We only found 1 close-to-perfect heart shape at the end of the baking session.]
 |
| cranberry white chocolate cookies |
Masak-thoughts: Taste was great. But why was the texture so rough!I found the cookies really tough too. WAY TO GO!~
Less is more when it comes to dough.
Overworked dough is a baker’s worst nightmare and it often comes down to temperature. Ideally, you want the kitchen to be cool before you start handling the dough. If yours tends to heat up quickly, work the dough first before turning on the oven. Silverton recommends that you “handle the dough as little as possible and always use your fingertips because they’re cooler than your palms.” When rolling the dough, start from the center and work your way out, flouring the surface and dough as you go. “People are afraid of flour,” Jackson says. However, “if the dough has enough flour in it, don’t be afraid to use enough flour to roll it out. Otherwise, you’ll overwork it.” You can tell when cookie and pie dough is overworked because it will be stretchy and sticky, resulting in poor texture—and results. Deborah Racicot, pastry chef at Gotham Bar & Grill in New York City, says, "If it is a pie crust, the dough will be tough and taste like cardboard. For a sweet dough, the butter may leach out, and be greasy, or even tough.”
Overworked dough is a baker’s worst nightmare and it often comes down to temperature. Ideally, you want the kitchen to be cool before you start handling the dough. If yours tends to heat up quickly, work the dough first before turning on the oven. Silverton recommends that you “handle the dough as little as possible and always use your fingertips because they’re cooler than your palms.” When rolling the dough, start from the center and work your way out, flouring the surface and dough as you go. “People are afraid of flour,” Jackson says. However, “if the dough has enough flour in it, don’t be afraid to use enough flour to roll it out. Otherwise, you’ll overwork it.” You can tell when cookie and pie dough is overworked because it will be stretchy and sticky, resulting in poor texture—and results. Deborah Racicot, pastry chef at Gotham Bar & Grill in New York City, says, "If it is a pie crust, the dough will be tough and taste like cardboard. For a sweet dough, the butter may leach out, and be greasy, or even tough.”
[From: http://www.womansday.com/food-recipes/cooking-tips-shortcuts/10-baking-tips-from-the-pros-117036]
