This is one of my most favourite cookies and I always bake it during Chinese New Year. This year, without fail, I bake it again...I like the crunchiness and the nutty texture. Not that I am boastful, once you have tasted it, you would never want to eat peanut cookies again.
As usual, Apprentice Chef would always go for simple ingredients and easy to make type of cookies. This cookie does not require any eggs and therefore it's a perfect bake for vegetarians.
Ingredients:
260g butter
300g flour
200g cashew nuts
150g sugar
Some vanilla essence
Methods:
1. Whip butter with sugar till light and creamy.
2. Toast cashew nut in oven at 180 degree celcius for about 10 minutes (till brown)
3. Blend the cashew nuts coarsely (you don't want it to be too refined as it will lose the chewy effect).
4. Mix flour and cashew nut into the butter cream till well blended.
5. Drip in vanilla essence.
6. Once the dough is done, you need a cookie cutter to get into all types of shapes that you like and bake the cookies for about 15 minutes in a 180 degree oven.
Tips:
1. Good butter makes a lot of difference to the taste of the cookies.
2. The sugar of the above recipe has been reduced according to my taste. In case it is not sweet enough after mixing in the flour and cashew nut, you can still add it some more icing sugar according to taste.
3. For easy handling, you can cut open a big plastic bag and put some of the dough in. This enable you to roll out the dough without mess. Once you get the correct thickness (about 5mm), just press it with cookie cutter and you can finish in a jiffy.
4. You can also place half a slice of cashew nut on top of the cookie and brush it with egg wash for an even more perfect finish. This is optional, of course.
