Cashew Nut Cookies

 

Ah! It's just two days before Chinese New Year and all I read about on Facebook are my friends doing all they can to prepare for the reunion dinner or getting their nails ready for visiting friends and relatives. I miss such New Year Spirit, as you can guess, it's kinda of scarce here in Sweden. So the only way to warm things up is by using the oven and baking one more Chinese New Year goodie, and this is one I find it a bit hard to stop eating. So double the recipe if you have a feeling you are going to be in the same predicament as me.


The recipe is doubled from the one I used from Small Small Baker which I made about 120 cookies, using the smallest Christmas cookie cutter I can find that still can fit half a piece of cashew nut comfortably. One thing that I think I will do it next time is to increase the amount of ground cashew nuts because I really like deep, nutty taste of cashew nuts in the cookies, but for now, this is a faithful following (only doubled) of her very good recipe.

Ingredients

220g butter
140g castor sugar
2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
1 egg
80g grounded cashew nuts

360g plain flour
40g cornflour
1 teaspoon baking powder 

For the egg wash, separate one egg and prepare enough cashew nuts halves to place on top the cookies. I find it easy if you use a butter knife and apply a light pressure on the curve of the thickest part of the the nut.

Steps

1. Roast the whole cashew nuts in a dry pan over the stove until fragrant before grinding it in the food processor as fine as you can.  I used salted cashew nuts because it's quite hard to find the natural ones, but I think it works out well too.
   
   
   
   
2. Cream the butter and sugar together until well mixed. Add in the grounded nuts first, follow by the vanilla extract and egg. Add in the flours and baking powder until incorporated and coming together as a dough. 
3. Place the dough on a floured surface and knead it to a pliable stage. If it's too soft, you can try putting it in the fridge for half an hour before rolling it out to be about 3/4 cm thickness.
   
   
   
4. Use a cookie cutter to cut out the desire shapes and place on the baking sheet, spacing them equally apart. Lightly beat the egg white so it's easier to brush lightly on each cookie, placing a cashew nut half on each cookie, then brushing it again with the beaten egg yolk to achieve a golden brown tinge after baking.
   
   
   
5. Bake at 180°C for 15 minutes until golden brown. Remove from the oven and let it cool thoroughly before storing (or eating!).