Toasted walnut white chocolate chunk cinnamon-sugar dipped cookies

“Mmm. You could sell these.” Those were the winning words of praise that John gave me as he took a bite of my greatly-improvised cookie concoction on Saturday night. Then he made me write the recipe down. And because I’m in a generous mood, I’m sharing it with you.

You’ll probably do just fine if you follow the recipe I blatantly ripped off (I mean, adapted. That’s the legal, slightly-respectful form of stealing, right?) But I’m incapable of following a recipe. Even when it comes to baking, which is less forgiving on random additions/substitutions and half-assed measurements. I tend to think, “this would be better with cinnamon,” or “what can I use instead of half an egg? Uh, yogurt is similar, right?”

Anyway, this time it worked out and here is an approximation of how it went down.

P.S. Apparently I can’t call these snickerdoodles because they don’t feature cream of tartar, so you’re stuck with an even longer title.

Cookies with the long title

1/2 cup walnuts, finely chopped

14 cup unsalted butter

1/4 cup white sugar

1/4 cup brown sugar (or do what I do: white sugar + 1/2 teaspoon molasses)

1/4 tsp salt

1/2 tsp vanilla extract

1/4 tsp almond extract (optional but adds a lovely buttery/marzipan-y flavor)

2 tbsp thick yogurt (vanilla works)

1/4 tsp baking powder

1/4 tsp baking soda

3/4 cup white flour

1/4 cup oat flour (finely grind some oats – oat flour adds a lightness to the texture)

1/4 cup unsweetened desiccated coconut (also adds a good texture)

100 g bar white chocolate, chopped in small chunks

topping: 1 tsp cinnamon and 1/4 cup white sugar

1.. Toast walnuts in a dry skilled over medium heat, until light brown and toasty-smelling. Remove from heat.

2. Microwave butter in a medium-sized bowel. Add sugars, salt, extracts, and yogurt. Mix well for a minute or so – this helps the butter and sugar get those caramelized notes.

3. Add white flour, baking powder and salt. Stir until incorporated. Add oat flour and coconut, stirring well. Fold in walnuts and chocolate chunks (warning: don’t eat half of these two things because they’re too delicious on their own to make it into the batter).

4. Place dough in plastic wrap or a plastic bag and place in freezer for 30 minutes (if impatient) or refrigerate overnight.

5. Preheat oven to 350F/180C and line baking sheet with baking paper. At this point, dough should be thick but workable, meaning you don’t have to take a hammer to it to break off balls of dough.

6. Mix cinnamon and sugar in a small bowl. Break off tablespoon-sized pieces of dough and roll into balls (or use a cookie scoop. Yes, you need one. I burned through mine – don’t ask – and am now coveting another for Christmas. Hint hint to my readership, which is 90% my parents).

7. Where were we? Roll those balls into the cinnamon sugar, place 2 inches apart on the cookie sheet, press down a bit if you like them fatter (I prefer to leave them ball-shaped so the centers stay softer). I got about 15-16 because I ate a bunch of dough (oops!)

8. Bake 8-10 minutes, until golden at the edges and almost-golden on top (basically, you don’t want to press down on one and have it completely deflate right away). Let cool on baking sheet. Eat.

London in 500 Words or Less

That should probably be “500 words or fewer,” but who’s going to report me to the grammar police?

All of my London summaries are nearly identical, but I can’t help it:

1. Get off the bus.

2. Get overwhelmed.

3. Get on the bus.

4. Get into pajamas and admit it, you’re a country mouse.

Walking around Oxford Circus (London) reminded me of being in Manhattan, fighting my way upstream like a salmon in a sea of people. I didn’t stop for pictures, but I did stop for some Urban Decay eyeliner in House of Fraser. And a new bike lock in Sports Direct.

We made our way to Borough Market, which was nice but overhyped (/-priced). A makeshift lunch of local/organic/all that semi-elitist foodie goodness plus a nice olive pepperoni baguette hit the spot, and I bought some tomato-chili jam to enjoy back home, plus some Jerusalem artichokes that are very funny-looking but promise to be tasty. And persimmons/Sharon fruit, my latest obsession. I ate the four-pack one by one, on top of the windy London Bridge with juice dripping down my jacket and later, perched on a table in Pret as we drank some caffeinated beverages.

 

Riding the tube brought back memories of my 2007 (that long ago?) semester in London. I keep saying I’m going to stop by Kilburn Park, but haven’t, and didn’t this time, either. 

We then tried, unsuccessfully, to find a decent Mexican restaurant. There appear to be only Chipotles and Chipotle-wannabes in London, and although half the reason we went to the city that day was specifically for Chipotle burritos…well, we weren’t feeling it after all. Luckily we found a charming “Beirut street food” place tucked away in a Soho side street, and we were early enough to snag a table. I had to get the chicken livers (named one of the top 100 dishes in some sort of Time Out feature) and they lived up to their hype. Seriously, I say “chicken livers” and can see you click the little “x” on this site, but something about it just worked (I think the frying, plus the pomegranate molasses). Then we shared this for dessert # 1 (dessert #2? Cadbury mini-eggs and creme eggs. Because I needed a full-on sugar coma).

 

It was a nice day out, but nothing beats coming home to tea and House of Cards, and that pretty much sums up how the rest of the weekend went.