Decisions and Indecision

We are faced with choices that we will have to make each day. Turn left or right? Wear dress or pants (applicable to females only)? Handbag or clutch bag (again applicable to females only)? Eat this or that? Black tea or green tea?

There was once I had this conversation with a close friend:

Me: "So have you decided?"

Friend: "Nah, I'm still sitting on the fence."

Me: "You know what happens when you sit on the fence too long?"

Friend: "Should I?"

Me: "Your a** gets skewered."

From the above, one might think that I am a decisive person. Well, I thought I was. Until I was faced with 5 different variations on a single recipe. My decision making process went out of the windows.

Should I make Chewy Oatmeal-Raisin Cookies? Date Oatmeal Cookies? Ginger Oatmeal Cookies? Chocolate Chip Oatmeal Cookies? Nut Oatmeal Cookies? Orange and Almond Oatmeal Cookies?

Decisions, decisions.

And as if there wasn't enough choices already, I had to switch to my Google Reader and see these cuties from Blessed Homemaker.

After that, it was down to either Chewy Oatmeal-Raisin Cookies or these Matcha Oatmeal Cookies.

When I was preparing the ingredients, I was still sitting on the fence. Then it finally came down to ground cinnamon for Oatmeal-Raisins or matcha powder for Matcha Oatmeal.

I still couldn't decide. Maybe I was too disturbed after watching Hannibal while I had my dinner. Note to self: NEVER eat dinner while watching gory movies.

Then I do what I always do when I can't decide. I just run with both. So in went the ground cinnamon and the matcha powder to the mixing bowl.

By the time I realised what I had done, I was horrified. The marriage between green tea and red bean is legendary, but one with green tea and cinnamon is unheard of. I tried to scoop out as much of the ground cinnamon as I could from the mixing bowl and realised shortly that it is futile. Exasperated, I dumped the ground cinnamon back in.

So here are my Matcha Cranberry Oatmeal Cookies, all packed and ready to be sent.



The cookies actually turned out quite well. The matcha taste was more dominion while the cinnamon was somehow muted but played well in the background. Surprise, surprise!

So the moral of the story: Toss that bottle of ground cinnamon which has probably lost its potency.

Matcha Cranberry Oatmeal Cookies
(adapted from Baking Illustrated)

Ingredients
1 1/2 cups plain flour
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp baking powder
2 tsp matcha powder
227g butter, softened
2/3 cup caster sugar (1 cup sugar if cranberry is unsweetened)
2 large eggs
3 cups old fashion steel cut oats
1 1/2 cups cranberry

Directions
1. Preheat oven to 180 degC and line baking sheet with baking paper.

2. Combine flour, salt, baking powder and matcha powder in a bowl.

3. Beat the butter until creamy. Add sugar and continue to beat until fluffy. Add eggs in one at a time.

4. Stir in the flour mixture in. Follow by the oats and cranberry.

5. Scoop dough out with a teaspoon for bite-size cookies and place on baking sheet, leaving at least 3 cm apart.

6. Bake until edges of cookie turn golden brown. About 12 to 15 minutes.