As I was rummaging through my pantry, I found a bag of li hing mui powder. Have you ever heard of li hing? If you don't life in Hawaii then I would most likely guess you haven't. Li hing mui is a salty dried plum, often eaten by itself, in its seed form, or as a powder, mixed with fruits or candy. Li hing is slightly sour, but also sweet and salty at the same time.
I wanted to see how the flavors would work in a cookie, so I used a snickerdoodle recipe but replaced the cinnamon with li hing mui powder and added some li hing to the batter. Too bad I didn't take a picture of the initial cookie dough. It was bright orange! After they had baked, the color turned a couple shades darker to a more pinkish orange color. Darn, these would've been perfect for Valentine's Day, especially if I cut then in to hearts!
I originally thought the flavor might be too strange, but surprisingly they weren't too bad. I found the cookies to have a very strong li hing taste, but others who tried it said it was more of a subtle hint of li hing. The sweetness of the cookie nicely balanced out the tart/sour-ness of the li hing. If you want a more bold flavor I would recommend adding another tablespoon or two to the initial batter.
Li Hing Cookies
Ingredients:
1 cup butter, room temperature
1 1/2 cups sugar
2 eggs
2 1/2 cups flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons li hing powder
1/3 cup sugar
2 tablespoons li hing powder
Directions:
1. In a bowl cream the butter and sugar. Beat in the eggs
2. In a separate bowl sift together the flour, baking soda, salt, and li hing. Mix flour mixture into butter mixture.
3. Place dough in the fridge in an airtight container for 3 hours, or until dough is firm and easy to roll into a ball.
4. Preheat oven to 350˚F.
5. In a small bowl combine 1/3 cup sugar and 2 tablespoons li hing.
6. Coat rounded tablespoons of dough in sugar mixture.
7. Place coated balls on a cookie sheet, and bake for 12 minutes
I love Li Hing Miu but have never tried in a cookie. Usually I sprinkle it over fruit, or put it in a slushie but I will have to try this.
ReplyDeleteI have never heard of li hing powder. That is so cool.
ReplyDeleteHi Lynne - thanks for stopping by! I've never heard of li hing powder but the colour is gorgeous...sounds like it would also taste delicious. Thanks for sharing!
ReplyDeletehi lynne,
ReplyDeletei'm entering the spokane county fair baking contest and i'm going to try your recipe! i lived in hawaii for a very long time and would love to expose the eastern washington crowd to something really tasty! i'll have to order some powder from wholesale unlimited. my packet of powder i brought back last year ins't enough!
Okay, here I post again! >.<
ReplyDeleteI'm trying out the recipe even as we speak. I prepared the dough last night and when I get home tonight after work, I'm gonna pop them in the oven to bake.
I put 4 tbs of Li Hing instead of 2, I like the extra spice. I used brown sugar vs white sugar so it looks more orange brown than red orange, I put several drops of red food coloring in it to make it look more festive.
I realized that now my Li Hing snickerdoodles have a lot of chems in it. Yellow #4 Red #40, Aspartame and not to mention propylene Glycol. I told someone, "I'm about to make Li Hing Snickerdoodles, please realize that there's enough chemicals in here to run a city". lol.
With all due seriousness though, the batter tastes really good. I love it. It's for Valentine's Day!
Deeelish! Just made them using 3 T of powder in the dough. Thank you for sharing your recipe!
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