Guest Post: Salted Cashew Crunch Cookies

I'm away on a cruise right now, and I've asked some of my favorite local bloggers to write guest posts for me. Today, Michelle from Fun and Fearless in Beantown is sharing a recipe for salted cashew crunch cookies. Don't they sound fabulous? I hope you enjoy the recipe and Michelle's post. She and I met at a viewing party at Rialto way back when Jody Adams was on Top Chef Masters  and have been great friends ever since. I admire her creativity in the kitchen, and I'm so happy our trip to King Arthur has inspired her to bake more. Please check out Michelle's blog when you have a chance!


When Megan asked me to write a guest post for Delicious Dishings, I was extremely nervous.  You see, I’m not much of a baker.  While I enjoy cooking a lot, baking is typically very intimidating for me.  But in September, Megan organized a lovely weekend of baking at King Arthur Flour Company and ever since then, I can’t stop trying out recipes from King Arthur Flour’s Whole Grain Baking cookbook!  I started out with whole wheat bread…moved onto wheat baguettes…and I finally decided to try my hand at something a little more sweet.

When my friends at We Are Not Martha invited me to a small party a few weeks ago, I decided this was the perfect occasion to try out a new recipe from the cookbook – Salted Cashew-Crunch Cookies.

First, I got together my ingredients:

• ½ cup unsalted butter
• ¾ cup sugar
• ½ teaspoon salt
• ¼ teaspoon baking powder
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 large egg
• 2 cups old-fashioned rolled oats, ground for 30 seconds in a food processor
• 2 cups coarsely chopped cashews
• Extra-fine salt for topping

I first started out by preparing my rolled oats and cashews.  I roughly chopped up the cashews on a cutting board and set the chopped nuts aside.  I then put the two cups of rolled oats in a food processor and pulsed it for thirty seconds.

With all of my ingredients ready, I got to work on making the cookies.  I preheated the oven at 350 degrees and lined two baking sheets with parchment paper.  I first combined the butter, sugar, salt, baking powder, vanilla and egg in a bowl and beat the ingredients together.

I then beat in the ground oats.

And then slowly beat in the chopped cashews.

The texture of the dough was thick like granola.  I took a tablespoonful of the dough, rolled it with my hands and placed it onto the baking sheet.  In total, I rolled thirty balls of dough and sprinkled each ball of dough with a very light sprinkle of salt.

I then lightly greased the bottom of a drinking glass and used it to press the cookies down to about 3/8 inch thick.

I put both trays of cookies in the oven for about six minutes and then rotated the trays from the bottom and top racks of the oven.  I let the cookies bake for another six minutes.  The cookies weren’t quite golden brown so I shut the heat off the oven and left the trays in the oven for an additional three minutes.  When the three minutes were up, I took the pans out of the oven and let the cookies cool right on the baking sheet.

I of course had to try a cookie as soon as it was cool enough and it had a nice crunchy texture with a slightest hint of salt.  It was a crunchy cookie and not chewy at all because the recipe used absolutely no flour at all. 

The next day, at the party, I gave the cookies another taste.  I thought they were still pretty good but a tad dry.  I think that the next time I make these cookies, I will take them out of the oven after the initial twelve minutes.  I was definitely conservative in sprinkling salt on them and the cookies could have used a little more salt to truly get that salty crunchy taste.

Still, I’m proud of how the cookies turned out and I can’t wait to get back in the kitchen to see what else I can bake up!  Thanks Megan for letting me share my latest adventures in baking with your readers!