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