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Saturday, March 19, 2011

Li hing mui powder....cookies?!

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

6 comments:

  1. 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.

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  2. I have never heard of li hing powder. That is so cool.

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  3. Hi 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!

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  4. hi lynne,
    i'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!

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  5. Okay, here I post again! >.<

    I'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!

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  6. Deeelish! Just made them using 3 T of powder in the dough. Thank you for sharing your recipe!

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