Today is Saturday. I don’t think you can find a person in the world who doesn’t understand the fragile and fleeting beauty of a Saturday morning. More energetic than a Friday night when you are tired from working all week, and less worrisome than a Sunday afternoon when work looms large on the horizon. Saturday morning are one of my favourite times of the week. Saturday mornings mean the farmers markets with my mum and sister, Saturday mornings mean a long run when I am in training (such as at the moment), and after that run, Saturday mornings mean cookies.
These cookies are a riff on the Chunky Dunkers that I made a few months ago. (And by made we all know that I mean that they barely made it out of the oven before I was double-fisting them and cursing my mouth for not being big enough to hold more than one bite at a time.)
The Salted Cashew and White Chocolate Cookies are slightly salted, in fact next time I make them I may bump the salt up to a whole teaspoon rather than a half just to get that extra little salty kick. The cashew butter is subtle but more pronounced once the cookies are cooled, and it makes the crumb oh so tender. And when that tender, salty dough meets salted cashews and creamy sweet white chocolate chunks your mouth explodes in a divine explosion of cookie goodness.
Salted Cashew and White Chocolate Cookies (gluten free)
If you don’t need these to be gluten free you can use 250 grams of plain flour in place of the rice flour and buckwheat flour).
Makes about 20 cookies.
Ingredients
- 50 grams butter, softened
- 60 grams cashew butter
- 50 grams caster sugar
- 125 grams brown sugar
- 1 ½ teaspoons vanilla essence
- 1 large egg
- 3 tablespoons milk
- ½ teaspoon salt
- 1 ½ teaspoons baking powder (ensure this is gluten free)
- 100 grams white rice flour
- 150 grams buckwheat flour
- 150 grams white chocolate chips
- 3/4 cup salted cashews, roughly chopped
Method:
- Preheat your oven to 180C (350F) and line two large cookie sheets with baking paper.
- In a large bowl beat butter, cashew butter, sugars, and vanilla until light and fluffy. I used a wooden spoon, but you can use a hand-held mixer instead.
- Add egg and milk and beat well.
- Sift in salt, baking powder, and flours. Stir until well combined.
- Mix in chocolate and nuts until evenly distributed.
- Scoop out mounds of dough with a soup spoon (or an ice cream scoop if you want extra-large cookies). Leave about 6 cm between cookies to allow for spreading.
- Bake for 12-15 minutes. Rotate halfway through cooking time.
- Remove from oven and allow cookies to cool completely before storing in an airtight container for up to 5 days.
Sometimes the bribe of a cookie keeps my feet turning over in the last mile or two. Sometimes the craving hits after I get home, but the cookie can never be ignored. So go on, treat yourself. It’s the best way to start the weekend.
Tell me dear reader, how do you like to start your Saturday mornings? Anything special that you look forward to all week?
