Wednesday, April 27, 2011

Lose Some, Gain Some and Muesli Cookies


Its must have been a long while since I exercised regularly. For the past two weeks while I was away for Reservist training, I found it to be especially physically exhausting. Perhaps age is fast catching up on me too. Whichever it is, it just signifies that it is time for me to hit the running track and go for laps in the pool.

When I got back home after training was over, I got a rude shock. My laptop went down. What a nice timing it had to be.... My baking pics were all gone, including pics for two backlogs - raisin oatmeal cookies and a cookies and cream cake, along with other files that were in my hard disk. My windows vista even got downgraded to windows XP as the recovery disk was one for windows XP.

On a positive note, my friend got me a stand mixer at a real steal - a 1150W 5L capacity beater (lesser known brand), all for only 50 bucks. Well, I guess sometimes you lose some but you gain some in return. I am going to use it for bread making and big-batch baking. The two extra mixing bowls could come in handy too.


I missed baking a great deal now that I have endured two bake-less weeks. For a start, I tweaked the raisin oatmeal recipe and used raisins + Dorset Cereals (low sugar content, with natural sweetness from dried fruits) instead to churn out a batch of Muesli Cookies. The great thing about using Dorset Cereals is that they offer a wide variety of dried fruits and nuts all mixed together. And how did it turned out? Chunky, oaty-nutty-fruity cookies which were cereals-ly good! 

Muesli Cookies (recipe adapted from the Art & Soul of Baking by Cindy Mushet
Serving size: 40 cookies
Taste and texture: Chunky, nutty, fruity. 
Equipment and materials: 
  • Stand electric beater/ handheld electric beater or wooden spoon
  • Flour sieve
  • Measuring spoon set
  • Spatula
  • Mixing bowls
  • Wire rack
  • Baking trays/ cookie sheets
  • Baking / parchment paper

Ingredients:
  • 120g unsalted butter, softened at room temperature
  • 80g brown sugar
  • 35g castor sugar
  • 1 egg, lightly beaten (60g with shell)
  • 150g plain flour
  • 1/4 tsp baking powder
  • 1/4 tsp baking soda
  • 1/4 tsp salt
  • 190g muesli (I used Dorset Cereals)
  • 75g raisins

Making the Cookies:

Mixing dry ingredients - Sift plain flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt into a large mixing bowl. Whisk with a balloon whisk to distribute them evenly.  

Cream butter - Beat the butter and both sugars on medium speed for 2 minutes until butter mixture is fluffy. The butter need not be as well-creamed as that for making cakes.

Making the cookie dough - Stir in the egg into the creamed butter and mix on medium low speed until combined. Next, s
tir in flour mixture and beat on low speed to combine butter-egg mixture and flour briefly. Stop once the dough starts to comes together. Scrape and fold in any stray flour with a spatula. Lastly, fold in the  muesli and raisins. 

Baking the cookies - Scoop leveled tablespoons of dough onto baking trays/sheets lined with baking paper, leaving 1.5 inch between each cookie dough. Preheat oven to 180 degrees C and bake for 12-18 minutes. Once done, the cookies should be firm to the touch and will firm up further upon cooling. Leave cookies to cool completely on a wire rack before storing in air-tight containers.


Notes:
  1. Bake cookies for 12 minutes for softer cookies or 18 minutes for firmer cookies. 
  2. cookies do not spread much since there is a great amount of oats, nuts and dried fruits. 
  3. Use 140g rolled oats and 100g raisins for raisin oatmeal cookies. 

Notice:

If you wish to post the recipe and instructions online, please give due credit and do re-phrase the instructions. I have taken quite a bit of effort to construct, edit and type them out. Thank you =]

8 comments:

  1. Welcome back ZY! I don't trust computer anymore. Even hard disk also failed me. :(

    ReplyDelete
  2. ZY, please go upgrade your computer to Windows 7, it'll save your life and your laptop's...seriously. I was using Windows Vista earlier and it runs so sloooooowwwwww! If you have or anyone u know has an edu email account, you can get discounted rate for purchasing Win7. If u need more info, email me. Btw, happy to know that you'll be churning out some bread soon with your new mixer. 

    ReplyDelete
  3. The last thing I want it to happen is to have my hard disk crashed.

    Is it a typo error? U mean 50 or 500 bucks for the 5L capacity mixer? Can u reveal the brand?

    I like ur Muesli Cookies, in fact I like all nutty stuff.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Remember to do back up often too! That's what o experienced when I almost lost all my photos..with a stand mixer, easier for you to do some more intensive baking projects. :)

    ReplyDelete
  5. haha u can bake back ur lost reserves :P

    ReplyDelete
  6. Edith,

    Ya, this is what happens when we rely too much on technology...

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    Bee Bee,

    I'm thinking of upgrading mine to windows 7.. still considering whether to make do with XP. hopefully I'm more motivated to do bread now..

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    hey angel,

    luckily i didnt lose a lot of data.. thank goodness.

    Its 50 bucks alright, no typo here. I don't think its convenient for me to reveal much. Its a msian brand and comes with no warranty (for some reason), hence the cheap price.

    thanks =]. the pics are terrible, dun really do justice to the cookies. by my standards, i think the taste of the cookies is pretty good. Texture wise it depends on individual preference. good for those who like nutty stuff.

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    Aimei,

    I do know it impt to back up but I just didn't do it. Now its time to regret... Ya i'm sure it will come in handy soon =]

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    Jean,

    yeah man, I'm so going to chiong for lost time.. might not be able to submit in time for this month's aspiring bakers though.

    ReplyDelete
  7. No problem. I look forward to reading your bread post soon.

    ReplyDelete

Dear readers, thanks for visiting my humble little blog. Feel free to leave a message so that I can learn and be a better baker. Its a great feeling to share our culinary experience and adventures in the kitchen.

Thank you and have a nice day! Cheers =]

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