Subscribe to RSSOrange flavored cashew cookies
I promised Zlamushka that I would send her some Christmas special recipes for her Spoonful of Christmas event. When I said that, I had Kuswar- traditional Christmas dishes prepared at Mangalore, recipes in mind. But what I had not checked was the fact that all the Kuswar dishes that I had involved deep frying. They are all so tempting, but I am not in a mood to prepare anything deep fried after the Diwali overdose. So, I changed my plan.
Next in line was the Italian sandwich cookies which look absolutely delicious. I have tried these once before and messed them up. I wanted to give them a second try. So I started and took care not to miss a single step. But looks like making these is not my cup of tea. The cookies turned out like thin sheet even though I had taken all precautions. I am not yet ready to give up on them because they look absolutely delicious, I will give them another try after few days with a new batch of cornmeal(I seriously doubt the cornmeal that I have).
So now, I started going through my recipe collection, which my dad had got for me. There were many dishes which could go well for this event. Then I got this idea of making cookies with cashews. So I took ideas from more than one recipe in the collection and some from the above Italian sandwich cookies, came up with these cookies. I had really little hope that they would turn out good. But to my surprise, they were very very tasty, crunchy and melt in the mouth types. Give them a try to know what I mean.
I will send this to Zlamushka’s spoonful of Christmas event & hope she accepts such trial recipes. Well, I had not read the rules properly, so I haven’t wrapped these. Will see if I can do something about it before they all get over. Well..I have never celebrated Christmas before and have baked these just for the event, so I hope I get some kind of concession ;).
Ingredients:
2 cups all purpose flour
1 cup sugar
1 cup butter
1 and 1/2 tea spns baking powder
1/2 cup chopped cashews
1/2 cup chopped pecans
Zest of one orange
1 egg
1/2 tea spn salt
1 tea spn vanilla extract can be substituted for orange zest. But I loved the orange flavor in these. Instead of adding pecans and/cashews, any kind of nuts can be added. Coarsely powder the nuts leaving few big pieces for better result.
Method:
Preheat oven at 375F for about 10mins.
Beat together sugar and butter till they are well mixed. Add baking powder, flour, orange zest, egg, salt and mix well.
Now add chopped nuts and mix well.
Make small balls from the dough and keep them on baking sheet leaving enough space between two. They almost double in volume when done, so leave enough space.
Bake in oven for about 15 mins at 375 F.
Makes about 30 cookies
Preparation time : 30mins (excluding baking time)
The cookies look great, perfect colour
November 18th, 2007 at 11:29 pmWow the cookies look so divine. I am sure Zlamushka will be so happy to see the entry. Shilpa…..I cannot try these at the moment coz i have eaten too many Diwali sweets. I would love to try these out surely after 15 days.
November 18th, 2007 at 11:32 pmYour dad is such a wonderful person to have so many recipes collected for you. Thanks you Shilpa for such a wonderful recipe.
they look so dainty and they must have been fragrant with the orange zest. a perfect gift.
November 18th, 2007 at 11:59 pmbeautiful Shilpa:) one more recipe added to my ‘what to bake for christmas’ list;)
November 19th, 2007 at 2:03 amShilpa..as I look at your cookies, my mouth’s watering and memory recalling the orange flavoured cream biscuit flavour, the cream of which, as kids of course, we used to lick off the biscuits..very orangy!! yumm..sure the cookies are very different but equally appealing! wd try sometime..many ingr not on me presently!
November 19th, 2007 at 3:45 amYUMMY!! I made Orange Muffins , not for this event though. Orange smells so good in baked goodies!:))
November 19th, 2007 at 6:30 amlovely looking cookies!!! I love orange flavor
November 19th, 2007 at 11:23 amLove these cookies!!!
November 19th, 2007 at 12:30 pmLovely looking cookies, Shilpa! Orange flavor is always so refreshing!
November 19th, 2007 at 12:49 pmHi,
shilpa,
umm yummy………. where can we get the zest. Is it available in American stores? Nice for Nice recipee… will try for this long weekend party……….
November 19th, 2007 at 4:44 pmShilpa: Zest is the orange colored peel of orange fruit. Use a zester(a special tool used for zesting) or a normal scrapper to scrap off the orange skin (take care not to include any of the white portion, that is usually bitter in taste).
Cookies look delicious Shilpa…..wish I could grab one…:)
November 19th, 2007 at 5:09 pmwow cookies…
is Zest is a type of orange flovor?like vanilla Essence??
Shilpa: Zest is the orange colored peel of orange fruit. Use a zester(a special tool used for zesting) or a normal scrapper to scrap off the orange skin (take care not to include any of the white portion, that is usually bitter in taste).
November 19th, 2007 at 6:11 pmAwesome cookies dear… and the ingredients list is of things that I have in the pantry.. a definite try..:) Thanks for sharing with all of us..:D
- Siri
November 19th, 2007 at 9:04 pmThese cookies look wonderful. Very innovative!
November 19th, 2007 at 9:14 pmcookies look delecioussssss
November 20th, 2007 at 12:46 pmof course you will
As I said earlier, you made them for me and that is a wonderful gift on its own, who cares about the fancy wrap up (hope nobody reads this, now they all go unwrapping their entries 
Thanx for taking time to bake for me.
November 20th, 2007 at 1:21 pmIt looks yummy. Let me try.
Can you please tell us how to prepare mince (beef or lamb) pie because my daughter loves them.
November 22nd, 2007 at 12:17 amHey Shipa,
M so glad that u posted this amazing n simple Cookie recipie!!..:-)Actully, i was anxiosly waitng for som cookies recipie frm ur side..:-)..n there it is..!..Luks v.delicious n tempting..I cant wait long to make these wonderful cookies..!!..
I Nid a clarification pls(as ths is d 1st Cookie that il bake..!)..Do we hav to beat the egg with sugar n butter later..? or it shd jst b added like other ingredients n mixed prprly with a spoon or somthng..!!
Thanks n Regards,
Meenal.:-)
Shilpa: Yes Meenal, you need to mix butter and sugar first. Then add egg and mix. Only when all the wet ingredients are mixed, start adding dry ingredients. This makes mixing easy.
November 24th, 2007 at 2:22 amThnks Shilpa.Thnks for all ur guidance always n ofcourse such wonderful recipies..!!
November 25th, 2007 at 12:22 pmBest Regards,
Meenal.
can we prepare this without eggs
Shilpa: You can try, I am not sure. Sorry.
November 26th, 2007 at 2:11 amI just baked this cookie today. Its my first attempt at baking any kind of cookies , so i was a little nervous. But they turned out just perfect.I owe you a big “Thank You”.
November 26th, 2007 at 1:56 pmHi shilpa,
i baked these cookies with same mesaurments but it turn out black(burn)of cookies.i kept at 375F only.whats wrong with my baking??cookies taste is good,but i dissapointed with it.please help me whats wrong with my baking?
ThanQ in advance
Shilpa: You should have take them out a little early.
November 30th, 2007 at 3:59 pmHi Shilpa,
i like your recipes, and i did many recipes of yours.
Recently i did this cookies,but they didn’t came out well.i have a dought, that whether cookies dough should be like chepathi dough? because my cookies dough is loosey,and i added exact measurments,while making small balls is was very difficutl(loose ones),when i bake the cookies they spread all over the sheet and they become very thin and quickly the outter circle of cokies became dark in colour,should i add enough flour to in?? please tell me what to do,i directly put cookies in aluminium paper,should i use any tray?
please clarify my doughts because i like cookies very much and this recipe is very good.thankyou in advance.
Shilpa: Are you sure you followed exact measurements? What kind of measuring instrument did you use? Since there are more than 3 cups of dry ingredients and just one cup of butter, I am not sure how it became watery. By any chance did you put orange juice?
December 1st, 2007 at 1:31 pmHi Shilpa,
December 3rd, 2007 at 10:30 amNo i didn’t use any orange juice:(
i put exact measurements,i didnt measure butter,i think thats made wrong.
can we use direct aluminum sheet or any pad or tray is needed??
Shilpa: You need to keep them on a baking tray or some kind of oven proof dish. Silver foil is used to avoid sticking, it is not mandatory.
Hi Shilpa,
December 11th, 2007 at 3:31 pmI tried the cookies and a whole batch of 30 were gone in just 2 days. I need to prepare them again. They are such a winner cookies and the orange zest is a hero.Thanks for sharing.
Hi There
Tried this cookie.. my dough wasnt that thick and also the cookies were soft in the middle and cripsy at the edges but taste was good.. what might be the reason. The dough was as thin as you make for sandige (Odi in konkani)..
December 19th, 2007 at 5:03 pmme again…
i read the comment just above mine.. so i must have added the butter a bit more. one cup butter is one cup melted butter or one cup solid butter. I used “I just cant believe its not butter” butter. the taste was good.
Shilpa: Use the butter at room temperature, not melted, not very cold. I am not sure how the “can’t believe its not butter” works. I use normal unsalted butter.
December 19th, 2007 at 5:06 pmShilpa..I am going to make these cookies tom, hv zested the orange peel ..had two queries- 1.will the zest in cookie come out soft or crispy? 2.will it taste orangy or a bit bitter..my queries are becoz here we get varities of oranges and hence I dont want the taste to go bad,if this zest will be a bit bitter (have peeled off only the orange part..not white, still)kids will downrightly refuse to eat..kindly resolve so that I can bake these delicacies tom itself! Tks!
December 25th, 2007 at 9:35 amShilpa: You won’t feel the zest when you bite into cookies but it just gives very orange flavor. The zest does not become bitter, only if the white part is included, it becomes bitter. Other thing to remember is, make the cookies small because they increase in size considerably.
Shilpa..tks a lot..shall revert with feedback tom…gn..
December 25th, 2007 at 3:42 pmShilpa..thanks a lot dear..got yummy 27 cookies…the zest truly adds to flavour and can’t feel it at all! Tks again! Kids absolutely loved it!
December 26th, 2007 at 10:15 amHi Shilpa,
I tried these cookies last weekend..And absolutely orange flavoured cookies are much much better than vanilla cookies..
But I had one problem..I baked in large batch.I kept 3 cookie sheets in oven at a time to save my time..Cookies in only one sheet ( in the middle rack) spreaded properly & became good.
The 2 trays in the lower rack, the cookies got burnt in 7 min at 350 degrres..I had to remove those trays & then baked again..These cookies did not spread at all, became little more brown..but tasted good..
What’s wrong in this?..Shall I not bake more than one tray at a time?..Or shall I bake only on the middle rack?..Please clarify if you can..
Shilpa: Deepa, usually I bake only in middle rack because there heat gets equally distributed I guess(I had read about it in some place). I am not sure about it though.
January 24th, 2008 at 6:04 pmHi shilpa,
I have one query..do we need to wait the balls to double up first or just make the balls and put them in oven straight away..
Thanks in advance….
Shilpa - Sia they double up only when baked. So make balls and put them in oven
January 28th, 2008 at 3:44 amhi
January 30th, 2008 at 9:47 amIt’s me again….can you tell me what kind of dough it should be..I am trying it an dmy dough turns out to be little dry..it’s not anything like chapati dough….
Shilpa: Did you add too cold butter? may be thats the reason for it to become dry, not sure. If you can make balls out of it, just go ahead with whatever dough you have, it should work fine. When I tried, it had come out like chapathi dough.
Hey shilpa,
January 31st, 2008 at 3:51 amNothing to worry about my cookies…I added a little more butter and then I was able to make balls and Yes I tried them without egg and it turned out great..my daughter and husband are loving it…but I think I baked them a little longer as they have turned into a little black…but when I tried to take them out when they were golden brown they were little loose…
But all in all nice cookies and thanks….
Hi, Shilpa,
These cookies look delicious. Wondering if u have recipe for eggless cookies, if u do please post it, i am waiting.
thanks..
August 10th, 2008 at 11:08 amBye..
Hi Shilpa,
Wonderful cookies…plan to bake thm 2day itself..
I usually mix wet ingredients for cakes in mixer/blender as i dnt have a hand beater….Also iv observed tht butter at room temp n sugar canot be mixed well in my mixer as it becomes dry…so i melt butter in a pan to give it liquid consistency n then add sugar to it n mix…..can i do the same for these cookies also..?
or….shd i use butter at room temp n mix sugar n then egg with a spatula/whisker..?…wud that be ok …pls advice which procedure to follow as ths is my first cookie .. n dnt want anythng 2 go wrong frm my side..
Thnks in advance.
Shilpa: For both cakes and cookies, I use butter at room temperature and mix sugar with it using a hand blender. I did the same for this also. Even when I didn’t have the blender, I did the same with a big spoon.
October 7th, 2008 at 4:43 amHi Shilpa,
they r crunchy just d way i like n very delicious…The orange zest definitely gives them a unique touch n flavour….!
October 13th, 2008 at 3:18 amI made these cookies 2 days back n they hav turned awesome..!!..
I was lil worried while baking them as i did not add Egg to it…but still they came out well..n i was happily surprised..! As soon as i took them out of the oven they were soft in feel…But after cooling completely for somtime they were just d perfect cookies..!!
My husband n all his frens at office loved them….n it was hard for them to beleive that they were NOT store-bought..!!..
Wish to make them again…Can i try these cookies with some coarse wheat flour..??
Cashews, now thats another recipe ive never heard of, especially cookies.
Andy
October 28th, 2008 at 2:04 pmhttp://www.recipebuddys.com