Toffee Cashew Cookies

Toffee Cashew Cookies - made June 20, 2013 from Suzanna Winter

Baked without chilling dough first

I pinned this recipe a year ago but never made it.  Although I don't normally like nuts in my cookies, I (occasionally) try to keep an open mind about it and since I like both cashews and toffee, I knew that "one day" I would want to try these cookies.  For the Cookie Palooza goodie bags, "one day" had arrived.  This one stood out, not just because of the picture of nice thick cookies from the original blog I got it from but it also had the trick of dissolving the baking soda in water.  I hadn't thought of making it until the night before our volunteer event so I didn't think I'd have enough time to freeze the dough before baking all of it so it seemed like a perfect opportunity to test that dissolving baking soda trick again.

Also baked without chilling dough first

Hmmm, m'kay, I tried it and it didn't really work this time.  The cookies that were baked straight from newly made dough still spread somewhat thin.  So I only baked one test batch and, since I had a 6:30 am meeting the day of our volunteer event (and a 7:30 and an 8 am), I froze the rest of the dough overnight to bake off before going to RAFT since I was going to be up early anyway.  And....they still spread thin.  Not as thin as the night before but not thick as in the picture from Suzanna's blog.  Not sure what's up with that but the baking soda trick didn't work in this recipe. Taste-wise they were pretty good although next time I would be more generous with the cashews as, despite my no-nuts-in-cookies prejudices, the cashews were great in this cookie.  Or I just like cashews.  I actually really liked the cookie itself and think it would make a good recipe for any type of brown-sugar cookie.  I liked the flavor and the texture, just not the thinness of the cookie. I need to try it again because if you look at the picture on Suzanna's blog, they were exactly what I wanted but didn't get yet it's got to be possible to get them that thick. Hmph.

Baked from frozen dough

1 cup butter, softened
1 cup granulated sugar
1 cup packed brown sugar
2 eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
3 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
2 teaspoons hot water
½ teaspoon salt
1⅓ cup toffee pieces
1 cup cashew halves and pieces (or more if you choose)

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
2. Cream together the butter and sugars until smooth. Beat in the eggs one at a time, then stir in the vanilla. Dissolve the baking soda in hot water and add to batter along with salt. Stir in the flour, toffee pieces, and nuts. Drop by spoonfuls onto ungreased pans.
3. Bake for about 10 minutes in the preheated oven, or until edges are nicely browned.