Wednesday, December 10, 2008

12 Days of Cookies - A Gourmet cookie extravaganza

This event is the brain child of Andrea of Andreas Recipes. How I got asked to be involved with this incredible group is beyond me but all the thanks goes to Kelly of Sass & Veracity. There are 7 of us that have decided to do The 12 Days of Cookies - A Gourmet cookie extravaganza. We will be choosing, baking, tasting, blogging and sharing with you a cookie a day for the next 12 days of December.

These cookies are coming from Gourmet's Favorite Cookie Recipes: 1941-2008. They’ve published a lot of cookie recipes in their 68-year history, many of them around the winter holidays. This season they decided to choose the very best from each year.

These are my partners in crime. We will all be choosing different cookies and surprising each other. How fun is that???? Be sure to check out their selections for the day!

Jerry - Cooking...by the seat of my Pants
Sandy - At the Baker's Bench
Courtney - Coco Cooks
Kelly - Sass & Veracity
Claire - The Barefoot Kitchen
Andrea - Andreas Recipes

Day 10 of my 12 Days of Cookies features Dutch Caramel Cashew Cookies

This recipe came out of a tour that one of our writers took to a Dutch tulip farm. Streaked with cashews and crunchy caramelized sugar, the cookies were, in the editors’ opinion, every bit as appealing as the flowers. When we made them recently, however, we used roasted, salted cashews instead of raw ones, which transformed the cookies into something even more spectacular.-Gourmet

Dutch Caramel Cashew Cookies - March 1972 (link to the recipe as it was originally printed)

Cashew Praline:

1/2 cup sugar
2 Tbsp water
pinch of cream of tartar
1/2 cup finely chopped raw cashews (I used roasted, salted ones and they rocked!)

In a heavy skillet cook sugar with water and a pinch of cream of tartar over moderately high heat, washing down any undissolved sugar that clings to the sides of the skillet with a brush dipped in cold water, until the mixture is a light caramel. Stir in quickly finely chopped raw cashews. Pour the praline onto a buttered piece of foil and with a buttered spatula spread it into a thin sheet. Let it cool until it hardens and chop it coarsely.

Cookie:

1 stick or 1/2 cup butter softened
1/3 cup sugar
1 egg yolk (oops I added a whole egg)
1/2 tsp vanilla (I added 1 tsp by mistake:))
1 cup flour
2/3 of the chopped praline

In a bowl beat butter with sugar until it is creamy. Beat in egg yolk and vanilla. Stir in flour and two-thirds of the chopped praline and form the mixture into a dough. Form the dough into cylinders 2 1/2 inches long and 3/4 inch wide and put them about 2 inches apart on a lightly buttered cookie sheet. Sprinkle the cylinders with the remaining praline and bake them in a moderate oven (350° F.) for 12 to 15 minutes, or until they are lightly browned. Let the cookies cool on the sheet for about 1 minute and with a spatula remove them to a rack to cool completely. Makes about 18 cookies.

See how nice and gooey the praline is once it bakes up? This is one yummy cookie!

I really liked this cooked the only thing that I was very sad about was that it only made about 18 cookies. Not nearly enough of something really good.

I ended up inadvertently changing some of the recipe around.:

I did use roasted and salted cashews for the praline. Good thing too there is no salt in this recipe at all!

I added a whole egg and I think that gave a nice puffy cookie.

I added 1 tsp of vanilla instead on 1/2 tsp.

I had no idea what they were trying to tell me to do when shaping these things -
Form the dough into cylinders 2 1/2 inches long and 3/4 inch wide and put them about 2 inches apart on a lightly buttered cookie sheet. Sprinkle the cylinders with the remaining praline and bake them - what in the world does that mean????? I used a small scooper and made them that way. I flattened the top to allow for more praline to be sprinkled on.

Would I make these again? Oh yes and next time I would double or triple this to give me more!!! See how nice and gooey the praline is? This was after it was baked. Before it was just crisp and delicious! I LOVED these cookies!

As Always...

Happy Entertaining!!!

Judy
www.nofearentertaining.com

18 comments:

Valerie Harrison (bellini) said...

It makes only 18 cookies what a tease since I love cashews:D

Peter M said...

Gooey and crunchy are taste sensations I subscribe to. This batch is my fave of your series.

Also, this PMA was brought to by Kalofagas! lol

Anonymous said...

Oh wow, these look SO good! I can't add any more treats to my holiday baking list but I think these will get made in January :)

RecipeGirl said...

That's funny about the instructions. I often read older recipes and say 'what???', especially in things like community cookbooks where people have no idea how to write recipe instructions.

These look quite delicious!

glamah16 said...

I like that your oraline was salted. These look heavenly.

Sandy Smith said...

These are just perfect! You really nailed them! Wish we were neighbors so I could just run over and steal your cookies!! :)

Rachel said...

I'm in awe of this 12 days of cookie project...where do you keep them all? My freezer wouldn't be big enough, and I have a sneaking suspicion my stomach wouldn't be either! These look delicious though.

Judy@nofearentertaining said...

Hey Val-Yep and I didn't see that until I was scooping them out!!!

Hey Peter-Thanks for the PMA! These were good but my fave are still the Cranberry Turtle Bars!

Hi Elly-They would still be good in Jan!

Hey RG-The directions for shaping them were so weird!

Hey Courtney-There was no other salt in the recipe. I'm glad I used salted ones too!

Hi Sandy-I wish you were too. I would love to share these with someone!!!

Anonymous said...

These look totally yummy! I'm loving those centers. Good to know about the quantity -- probably b/c of your "scoops." If you rolled the dough to make it look like tiny rolling pins, then you'd have oblong cookies, or ovals, I guess. Who cares, right? Good to know you can make it easier by dropping -- I'm always up for that!

Preston said...

These look to die for. I may just have to try this recipe for the holidays!

Rachel J said...

Incredible. These look absolutely incredible. Great, now my stomach is growling... :0

Anonymous said...

Can you believe we've never had a cashew in any sort of cookie...ever??? This would be a great way to break that!

Anonymous said...

This is a recipe I am definitely going to try. it looks great and the possible options of adding other nuts makes it a great basic recipe.

Anonymous said...

These look great- carmelized sugar and cashews. YUM.

Elle said...

Ok, I know I'd have to at least triple this recipe! These look spectacular!

Chef E said...

These sound and look really good!

Rumela said...

Thanks a lot. dutch caramel cashew cookies is an interesting recipe. At last I have found something interesting and unique to serve to my guests during the holidays. I am sure that they'll love this dutch caramel cashew cookies.

Jessica | Cajunlicious said...

Yum! Love your blog! Came it blog on foodbuzz & am a new follower!
- Jessica @ http://cajunlicious.com