Cashew cookies
Cashew cookies are the crisp, melt-in-your-mouth butter cookies you find in so many Lunar New Year gift tins, rich and nutty from the chopped roasted cashews mixed into the dough. Each cookie is brushed with egg yolk and crowned with half a cashew, so it bakes up glossy, golden and pretty. There's no whipping involved, so you can easily make a batch in a single afternoon.
- Difficulty
- Very easy
- Prep
- 25 min
- Cook
- 18 min
- Rising or chilling
- 30 min
- Total time
- 1 hr 13 min
- Method
- Oven-baked
Ingredients
For the dough
For the topping
Instructions
Step 1
Spread 80 g cashews for the dough and 30 g cashews for the topping on a baking sheet and roast at 160°C for about 8 to 10 minutes, then let them cool and finely chop the ones meant for the dough. Roasting them first makes the nuts crunchy and deeply flavorful, since they won't have time to toast inside the dough. They're ready when they turn a pale ivory gold and smell rich and nutty.
Step 2
Beat 120 g softened unsalted butter with 70 g powdered sugar and a pinch salt for about three minutes, then add 20 g egg yolks and 3 g vanilla extract and beat just until combined. Powdered sugar dissolves quickly into the butter, giving the cookies a fine, crisp and tender texture. The mixture is ready when it's smooth, pale and slightly fluffy.
Step 3
Sift 160 g all-purpose flour, 20 g cornstarch and 2 g baking powder into the butter bowl and gently press it together with a spatula until almost combined, then add the chopped cashews. Cornstarch makes the cookies melt in your mouth, and a light hand keeps them from turning hard. The dough is ready when it comes together into a soft mass that doesn't stick to your hands, with the cashews evenly spread throughout.
Step 4
Wrap the dough in plastic wrap, flatten it and refrigerate for about 30 minutes. As the butter firms up, the cookies hold their round shape and don't spread when baked. The dough is ready when it feels firm and gives only slightly when pressed.
Step 5
Divide the dough into small, equal pieces, roll them into balls and place them on a parchment-lined baking sheet about three centimeters apart, pressing each one lightly to flatten it. Evenly sized balls bake at the same rate, so none end up burnt while others are underdone. The tray is ready when the balls are evenly round, flat on top and not cracked around the edges.
Step 6
Beat 15 g egg yolks, brush a thin layer over each cookie and press half a roasted cashew into the center. The yolk gives the tops a shiny golden finish and keeps the cashews firmly in place. The cookies are ready when they're evenly coated with a thin layer of egg and nothing is dripping onto the tray.
Step 7
Bake on the middle rack at 170°C for about 15 to 18 minutes, rotating the tray halfway through. Rotating helps the cookies brown evenly, since home ovens often run hotter on one side. They're done when the tops are glossy gold and the edges and bottoms are a light golden brown.
Step 8
Let the cookies cool on the tray for five minutes, then move them to a rack to cool completely before putting them in a container. Warm cookies are soft and fragile, and they only turn truly crisp once cool. They're ready when they feel light in your hand, snap crisply when broken and have a crumbly, tender inside.
Equipment
- Oven
- Baking sheet
- Parchment paper
- Hand mixer
- Spatula
- Sieve
- Mixing bowl
- Kitchen scale
- Pastry brush
- Wire cooling rack
Tips
- Choose whole raw cashews and roast them yourself, since salted roasted cashews make the cookies salty and go soft faster.
- If the dough gets too soft while you're rolling the balls, put the whole tray in the fridge for ten minutes before baking.
- You can swap part of the unsalted butter for salted butter for a richer sweet-and-salty flavor; in that case, leave out the salt.
Storage
Once completely cool, store the cookies in a glass jar or an airtight tin, with a food-safe desiccant packet if you have one, and they'll stay crisp for up to two weeks. If they go soft, re-crisp them in the oven at 150°C for about five minutes.
Common problems and how to fix them
- The cookies spread out thin and flat.
- The butter was too soft or the dough wasn't chilled long enough. Use butter that is just softened and give the dough its full time in the fridge before shaping.
- The cookies are hard instead of crisp and tender.
- The dough was worked too much after the flour went in. Press it together gently and stop as soon as it just comes together.
This recipe is based on the common ratios for this bake and is written entirely in our own words.
