Long before I bought my copy of Dessert Person, I saw this recipe for Claire Saffitz's oatmeal and pecan brittle cookies on David Lebovitz's blog. I just love nut brittle so these cookies were high on my list of things to make.
As my household is small,
I only made a half batch of cookie dough and I also made smaller cookies than
suggested in the recipe. I used 2 tablespoons of dough per cookie, about 48
grams, rather than ¼ cup of dough. The cookies spread a lot during the baking process so I can’t
imagine how huge the original sized cookies would be. To rein in the size of the cookies,
after baking I 'scooted' them with a larger cookie cutter while they were still warm to reduce the cookie size from 12cm to about 7 cm. Next time I make these cookies I might just use an egg yolk rather than a whole egg and see if that lessens the spread.
Oatmeal
and Pecan Brittle Cookies - adapted from Dessert Person: Recipes and
Guidance for Baking with Confidence by Claire Saffitz
Pecan brittle
70g coarsely chopped pecans
75g (⅓ cup) caster sugar
27g (1 oz) unsalted butter
1 tbs water
¼ tsp bicarb soda
pinch salt
Dough
113g (4 oz) unsalted butter, divided (half should be cold) and cubed
105g (⅔ cup) plain flour
Pinch salt
½ tsp bicarb soda
1 cup (100g) rolled oats, (not instant or quick-cooking)
75 g brown sugar
¼ cup (55g) caster sugar
1 cold egg
1½ tsp vanilla extract
Pecan brittle
Preheat the oven to 180º C, conventional and line a small baking sheet with baking paper or a silicone baking mat. Spread the chopped pecans on another baking tray and toast in the oven, stirring midway during baking until they're light golden brown and smell toasty, 8 to 10 minutes. Remove from the oven and set aside to cool.
Have the bicarb soda and salt measured out and close by. In a small saucepan, combine the sugar, the butter and the water. Bring to a boil over medium heat, stirring occasionally with a heatproof spatula, until the sugar has dissolved. Continue to cook, without stirring, but swirling the pan to keep the mixture cooking evenly until it turns a deep amber colour which will take 8 to 10 minutes.
Remove from heat and immediately stir in the pecan pieces and mix until well coated, then quickly stir in the bicarb soda and salt. Quickly scrape the mixture on the prepared baking tray and spread it as evenly as possible. Set aside to cool completely. Once cool, chop the brittle into pieces the size of large peas with a chef's knife. If you plan to finish making the cookie dough later, store the brittle bits in an airtight container. You want to use all the brittle, including all the little tiny bits left on the cutting board too.
Cookie dough
Place the cold cubed butter into a large bowl. Put the remaining butter into a microwave safe bowl. Cover and cook on high for about 4 minutes or until the butter has browned and smells nutty. Pour the browned butter over the cubed butter in the bowl, scraping any and all brown bits in the pan into the butter. Let cool for about 30 minutes, until the two butters start to become solid again.
While the butter is cooling, put the flour, salt and bicarb soda into the bowl of a food processor. Pulse it once or twice then add ½ cup (50g) of the oats and half of the chopped pecan brittle. Pulse until the ingredients are finely ground together.
Add the sugars to the bowl containing the butter mixture and mix until thoroughly combined and smooth. Scrape down the sides of the bowl with a spatula then add the egg and vanilla, then stir in the flour/oat/brittle mixture and continue to mix until there are no dry spots. Add the remaining chopped pecan brittle and oats and stir until they are well combined.
Refrigerate the dough for about an hour before scooping out the dough into 2 tbs mounds or just under 50g per cookie by weight. Cover the dough tightly and refrigerate for 12 hours, or up to 4 or 5 days.
Baking
The next day, preheat the oven to 180ºC, conventional. Place the oven racks on the bottom and top third of the oven and line two baking sheets with baking paper. Place 6 rounds of dough on the baking sheets, about 3 inches apart because these cookies spread a great deal. Flatten each dough ball a little.
Bake the cookies, rotating the baking sheets midway during baking, turning them from front to back, and switching the baking sheets from the top to bottom racks in the oven, until they are light golden brown across the top and deep golden brown around the edges, about 16 - 20 minutes. Let the cookies cool for 5 minutes, then transfer to a wire cooling rack. When completely cool store in an airtight container.
As expected, these cookies were absolutely delicious and so nice that I've made them twice now. Best of all, my biscuit tin is full!
See you all again next week with some more baking from my kitchen.
Bye for now,
Jillian
