Recipe – Cashew Suji Cookies

One of my favourite cookies during Chinese New Year (other than pineapple tarts), is the Cashew Suji Cookies. I would always separate the cashew nut and cookies, eat the cashew nut first before popping the cookie into my mouth.

I went to Bangkok last week and bought a tin of cashew suji cookies in the airport. However, I didn’t quite like it because it just tasted different from the ones we had in Singapore. I assume they didn’t use ghee. The taste of ghee is rather different from that of butter. Because ghee does not contain milk (unlike butter), it allows the nutty flavour to shine through.

Cashew Suji Cookies (makes 30)
Adapted from Delicious Asian Sweet Treats by Boostprints

Ingredients:
30g Unsalted butter
180g Raw cashew nuts
90g Plain Flour
80g Icing sugar
1/4 tsp salt
45g Ghee
1 Egg yolk, mixed with a few drops of water

Method:
1. Cut the butter into cubes and let then soften.

2. Split 50g of the cashew nuts into halves using the end of a small metal spoon.

3. Toast all the cashew nuts in a preheated oven at 180 degree celsius for 15 minutes till they turn golden brown and emit nutty aroma. Set aside to cool.

4. Put the cashew halves aside. Grind the rest of the cashew nuts.

5. Sift flour, icing sugar and salt. Mix well.

6. Add ground cashews and mix.

7. Str butter and ghee till smooth and well combined. Add to flour mixture and mix to form a dough. If the dough mixture is too crumbly, you can add about 1 tsp of ghee to it.

8. Preheat oven at 190 degress celsius for 10 minutes. Line a baking tray with greaseproof paper.

9. Scoop 1 tsp of dough, compress and shape to form a ball. Arrange them 2cm apart on the tray as cookies will spread a little during baking.

10. Brush the top of the cookies with egg glaze. Place a cashew half on top of every cookie and brush with egg glaze again.

11. Bake for 15 minutes. Allow cookies to cool for a few minutes before transfering to a wire rack to cool completely. Store in air tight container.

It was my first time baking cookies and I roasted my cashew nuts before splitting some of it into halves. So we had quite a hard time splitting them.

 

Lesson learnt: Raw cashews are easier to split than roasted ones.

 

Also, make sure you roast the cashews well before use, but not to the point where they burn nor should they be under-toasted. The cashews should be baked till a beautiful golden brown colour and should smell nutty and aromatic.