Cardamom and Cashew Cookies

Everyone loved this cardamom and cashew cookies recipe. They came out light, airy, and delicate. The flavor was nutty, not overly sweet, and buttery. They were reminiscent of a Russian tea cake, only thin and crisp. I combined the ingredients in my stand mixture and everything came together effortlessly. I was wondering how thin to smoosh the dough and decided on about 1/8 inch. This worked very well. The cookies smelled wonderful while they baked. It took about 20 minutes or so for the edges to become lightly brown and crisp. They disappeared pretty quickly.

As I started to read over this cardamom and cashew cookies recipe, I was surprised to not see ingredients I expect in a cookie recipe, like eggs, sugar, and baking soda or powder. But the recipe was very easy and took so little time to put together. These reminded us of cookies we had in Europe and Africa—not too sweet and perfectly buttery and melt-in-your-mouth. The dough was very sticky but easy to work. I dusted my glass with flour after flattening each cookie. When I took the cookies out of the oven, they were golden on the edges. I covered each with a light dusting of confectioners sugar that quickly disappeared, so I repeated this process with a thicker layer. They were amazing! Kind of a mix between a shortbread cookie and a wedding cookie without the larger nut pieces (I ground my cashews to graham cracker crumb size so you could not tell they were there). Definitely a recipe to keep!

I love cardamom, so I was really interested in this cardamom and cashew cookies recipe. The technique for making these cookies was super simple and would work for any type of shortbread cookie. I used a stand mixer and mixed the dough until it was crumbly, yet bits of butter were still visible. I don’t know why the dough needed to rest, but I waited the 30 minutes and used a scoop to minimize the amount that I had to work the dough. I baked the cookies until the edges were just beginning to get golden and the bottoms were light golden. The texture was light as a feather, and the flavor was unique in a grown-up way. The dusting of sugar was the perfect touch of sweetness. I ground the cardamom fresh so the flavor really came through.

This cardamom and cashew cookies recipe is very easy to prepare, and the results are wonderful. It’s a light, melt-in-your-mouth type of cookie. My tasters loved the combination of cardamom and cashews. The flavors weren’t strongly present, but they worked in a subtle way to impart flavor and a delicate texture. The cashews were crushed to a relatively fine texture in the food processor. I used a 1-inch ice cream scoop to portion the cookies onto the baking sheet. Smashing the balls with a glass dipped in flour was a little difficult because the cookies kept sticking to the glass. To make this easier, my mother suggested “twirling” the glass, and it worked very well. When the cookies were done, they were golden on the edges and a pale golden on top.

These cardamom and cashew cookies are a delicious little bite for tea time—not too sweet, just right. It resembles a shortbread cookie but is lighter in texture and doesn’t seem quite as rich (although it probably is).The cookies aren’t very sweet, so don’t be afraid to give them a generous dusting of confectioners sugar. A couple of things to make the recipe easier: Use a food processor to crush the cashews if you have one—they need to be fairly fine and very uniform to easily roll the cookies into balls and flatten them. It should be the texture of graham cracker crust—if you add a tablespoon of the sugar to the cashews, they won’t get sticky when you process them. Since the butter is chilled, the step of combining the butter and sugar really can’t be done by hand to get a good result. All of the butter needs to be smooth and creamy—if there are butter lumps, again it will be hard to roll and flatten the cookies.

This cardamom and cashew cookies recipe is easy to make and incredibly buttery. I love cashews and there’s definitely a hint of that. (I’d like an even greater cashew flavor, if possible, but these are definitely good as is.) I baked the cookies until they were lightly golden on the edges and, if you peek underneath, they looked uniformly golden. I actually used the food processor for the cashews. I put in a little bit of flour from the recipe to prevent the cashews from becoming cashew butter (adding some of the sugar would also work). These cookies were so popular that I couldn’t keep them from walking out of the house.