Geek Baker

Cripsy Salted Oatmeal White Chocolate Cookies

adapted from Henna

The original recipe didn’t have white chocolate in it, but it really works wonderfully in here. Even if you’re a dark chocolate fan. Watch out, use the good stuff and this may even convert you.

Ingredients –

• 1 cup all-purpose flour
• 3/4 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/4 teaspoon table salt
• 14 tablespoons (1 3/4 sticks) unsalted butter, slightly softened
• 1 cup sugar
• 1/4 cup packed light brown sugar
• 1 large egg
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 2 1/2 cups old-fashioned oatmeal
• 6 oz good-quality white chocolate chips or chunks (Henna is very right to say that you must use REAL white chocolate to get the best results.  Almost all bags of white chocolate ‘chips’ will NOT be made with real cocoa.  You need to look at the ingredient list.  Most likely you will need to buy bars of good quality white chocolate and chop them up. I was lucky enough to find chips with real cocoa at the second fancier market I looked at.)
• sea salt

Directions –

1.  Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Line baking sheet(s) with parchment paper.  Whisk flour, baking powder, baking soda, and table salt in a medium bowl.  (I sifted all these items and used sea salt instead of table.)

2.  Beat butter and sugars until light and fluffy.  Beat in egg and vanilla.  Add flour mixture and mix until just incorporated (less than a minute). Stir in oats and white chocolate by hand until they are even distributed throughout the dough. (I actually chilled my dough for about 30 minutes after this to make it easier to work with. Because my dough was cold, I had to increase my baking time a minute or two.)

3.  Make generous golf ball-sized balls of dough.  (I used this cookie scoop and made even size scoops, scraping off excess dough on the top of the scoop to create a flat side on each scoop of dough.  I then combine two scoops together to create a large, golf-ball sized ball.)

4.  Place balls on lined baking sheets about 2 1/2 inches apart.  Sprinkle cookies with sea salt.  (I LOVE cookies with sea salt sprinkled on them.  The sweet/salty combo is perfect.)

5.  Bake until cookies are deep golden brown, about 13-16 minutes.  Transfer to a wire rack to cool.  (But eat a few warm…there are delicious after about 3-5 minutes!)

Verdict: A really wonderful cookie.  I was surprised by how light and airy these cookies were.  I was expecting something a lot heavier and can now see why Henna prefers to put white chocolate in these…a bittersweet chocolate would just be too over-powering.  They got put in my dad’s birthday cookie gift box and I’m sure he’ll greatly enjoy them!

Thanks for the great recipe, Henna!