KP+: HXB cookies
All your ooey, gooey oatmeal dreams come true
Hello,
It’s so great to see you here! As always, thank you so much for subscribing to KP+, I’ve got a real treat for you today.
Let’s get right into it.
I have a chequered history with oatmeal / raisin cookies. The first time I ever made them was on a visit to LA almost eight years ago. I was staying with a friend of a friend and, on discussing cookies, he revealed that oatmeal raisin was his favourite. Trying my best to be a gracious guest, I used the East-to-West jetlag in my favour and woke up early and, with Chef Google as my guide, made a batch of oatmeal raisin cookies. Had I ever made oatmeal raisins before? No. Did that stop me from giving it a go? Of course not. Honestly I had no idea when they were done, what the signs were and what I should be looking for when baking and unsurprisingly, they were awful. Later that evening, my best friend (who may have already been suffering from a case of Californian stoner dry mouth) assured me they weren’t that bad and, to prove it, took a bite of one…. and almost choked, spluttering dry crumbs all over the table. Oops.
Ever since then I’ve given oatmeal raisin cookies a wide birth. That being said, surely Easter was a perfect time to revisit baking sins?! I’m not a religious person, but Easter *IS* the time of rebirth isn’t it? So I’m happy to share my resurrected oatmeal-themed cookies with you in the form of HXB oatmeal cookies, the fusion bake you never knew you needed.
This cookie is relatively high in sugar and eggs, and relatively low in butter and flour resulting in an ultra chewy tender cookie. I also tested out a version with a lower butter content and a higher proportion of caster sugar to brown sugar - it was pretty good, gooey and tender with a more crunchy edge, but I missed the chewy golden caramelisation of the first version.
This cookie also uses baking soda only - it reacts with the acidic brown sugar and creates a reaction that helps the dough lift (then fall!) resulting in a really chewy texture. It also helps with browning, too.
To make sure these have got proper HXB energy, there’s plenty of spices and mixed peel in there. I always prefer to make my own - my guide here for KP+ - since you can control the flavour and provenance of the fruit, but a good quality one from the supermarket would be fine here - I would run a knife over it though as it’s nice to have different sized pieces throughout so it’s more interesting to eat. For the raisins, it’s imperative that you soak them - it helps stop them from blowing up and becoming (overly) chewy burnt rocks. I also like to use a mixture of golden and black raisins for both looks & flavour.
As well as this, I think these cookies are wonderful if you bake them as soon as they’re mixed! You can bake from frozen and rest overnight in the fridge but it isn’t really necessary.
Alright, let’s make them.