Caramel Cashew White Chocolate Cookies

caramel cashew white chocolate cookies

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Mini cookies with a big caramel flavour today :) 

I love the Christmas season; minimalists decide there is no such thing as too much tinsel, elegant women don flashing ruldolph pins (there might be Christmas cocktails involved in this), ditto with baking where your famous 85% chocolate fondant will be replaced with more than one can of sweetened condensed milk in some Christmassy treat.

For me, I don't usually shop the commerical lollies isle... but at Christmas if it can be crushed, melted or thrown in whole it's included. 

Today I utilised hard butter candies (Werther's Original) for their unmistakable caramel flavour and Nestle caramel bits, which are new to the Australian market. Oh, plus white chocolate and cashews "just because". 

Nestle caramel bits and Werther's Original butter candies

Caramel Cashew White Chocolate Mini Cookies 

makes 4 to 5 dozen, plenty to pack up for Christmas gift giving

Ingredients

1 cup of Nestle caramel bits (caramel choc chips)

1 cup white eating chocolate chopped into small chunks

2 Werther's Original 50gram (1.75oz) rolls of butter candy  *ground to a fine powder

1 cup dry roasted unsalted cashew nuts, roughly chopped

2 cups plain flour (all purpose)

1 tsp salt

1 tsp baking powder

250g well-softened unsalted butter (1 cup)

2/3 cup light brown sugar

1/4 cup dark brown sugar

1/2 cup granulated white sugar

1 tsp pure vanilla extract or essence

2 tbsp water

1 egg

*I thought it would nice to include "bits" of candy, but as you can see from batch one... the candy melted/popped. Batch two; I ground the candies to a powder in the food processor to get the result I wanted. 

 Method

Preheat the oven to 180C (360F).

Sift together the flour, salt and baking powder into a bowl.·

In a mixer, cream the butter and the three types of sugar. Add the vanilla extract, water and egg. Beat together until just incorporated.

Beat in the flour mixture until just combined.

Stir in the crushed/powdered candies, chocolate chunks, caramel bits, cashews. Drop small teaspoons of the mixture, well spaced, on to non-stick baking parchment.

 

Three types of sugar used, dark brown, light brown and granulated white, you can replace dark with light if you can't find any at your local store.

Bake for 6-8 minutes until golden around the edges. Cool on tray for 5 minutes, then transfer to a cooling rack to cool completely.

Happy Baking :) 

You might also be interested in brown sugar and making your own