Cashew Cookies with Cardamom

These Cashew Cookies are buttery, nutty, mildly sweet and are made without eggs. Flavored with cardamom, these crescent cookies are a perfect pairing with coffee or impressive in Christmas cookie tray.

Cashew Cookies

Cookie week continues with Cashew Nut Cookies. These are fun to make since they are shaped like cashew nuts. They are soft, buttery and flavored with ground cardamom.

These are more like snowball cookies, melt away or snowball cookies. Made without almond flour and uses ground cashews instead. A shortbread base recipe that is so buttery, crisp, eggless cookie recipe and mildly sweet ----> my favorite part.

WHY YOU'LL LOVE THESE BISCUITS?

Cashew Cookies

• Make ahead & Freezer friendly - Like the walnut cookies, these type of shortbread type biscuits without any glaze or icing are great to be stocked in the freezer, which makes it perfect to made ahead before the Holiday season.
• Only 5 ingredients - Recipes with few ingredients are always an added bonus for it's convenience.
• Mildly sweet and perfect with coffee or chai - Simple biscuits are always a perfect pairing with your cup of joe or tea.
• Fun shapes - Cut the dough into moon, crescent or kaju shapes. Also, these can be simply made into rounds.
• Eggless - A recipe for vegetarians.
• Crisp & Buttery - It is simple with the taste of butter and ground cardamom.

A little about Cashew Nuts

Native to South America, they are widely grown in India and Africa. With slightly sweet flavor and a mild crunch, they are buttery, incredibly rich in healthy fats, protein, calcium, magnesium and potassium.

They have recently gained popularity in main stream US markets. Known as kaju, they are widely used in Indian sweet desserts or biscuits, for adding a creamy base for curries, soups, sauces and also make a delicious snack when roasted.

CAN I USE VANILLA EXTRACT INSTEAD OF CARDAMOM?

Sure can! If you are out of cardamom or not a fan of the spice, then simple use vanilla extract instead.

HOW TO MAKE CARDAMOM POWDER?

Grind about ¼ cup green cardamoms to a fine powder in a dry grinder and measure as needed for the recipe. I usually grind much more than that and store cardamom powder in a sealed zip lock bag and place in the freezer. This stays fresh for months. I explain more in cardamom recipes.

DOUGH CONSISTENCY

If the dough is softer, then cookies will flatten when being baked and if too firm then they will have cracks when being shaped. So, the dough should be soft yet firm.

• If dough feels softer - mix in 1 or 2 teaspoons more all purpose flour
• If dough feels very firm - mix in 1 or 2 teaspoons milk

INGREDIENTS

1. Flour – Regular unbleached all purpose flour
2. Butter – Unsalted butter at room temperature. Adjust salt is using salted butter.
3. Confectioners Sugar – Used for both making the cookies and coating.
4. Cashews - Raw cashews made into a fine powder.
5. Cardamom - Made into fine powder

PRO TIPS FOR SUCCESS

• Use room temperature unsalted butter.
• Confectioners sugar is the same as powdered sugar found in grocery stores.
• Process the nuts into a fine powder - I prefer processing them in a coffee grinder, Nutri bullet or mini food processor.
• Size - Divide cookie dough into 8 equal pieces for larger cookies or 12 pieces for medium size cookies.
• Baking time - It takes approximately 25 minutes for larger cookies and 20 minutes for medium cookies.
• Pull the snowballs out of the oven when the bottoms have browned but the tops are golden in color.
• Dusting the kaju biscuits in powdered sugar when warm is key. If cooled completely then it might stick.

VARIATIONS

1. Replace cashew nuts with other type of nuts like chopped raw pistachios, walnuts, toasted almonds or pecans.
2. Replace butter with ghee for a real Indian flavored cookies (almost tastes like good day).
3. Use vanilla extract instead of cardamom powder.
4. Mix in mini chocolate chips or chopped chocolate chips to the dough.

How to package them for gift giving during Christmas? I like to place 2 or 3 cookies in a cupcake liner, which not makes a pretty presentation, but also is less messy.

HOW TO MAKE?

1. Powder Cashews - Measure ¼ cup raw cashews and process in a dry grinder into a fine powder.
2. Make dough - Cream butter, ¼ cup confectioners sugar and salt, until creamy. Mix in flour, powdered cashews and ground cardamom, to form a soft yet firm dough.
3. Shape - Roll dough into a 8-inch log, cut into 8 equal pieces (to make larger cookies) or 12 equal pieces to make medium sized cookies. Shape each piece of dough into a crescent shape and press a halved cashew on top.
4. Chill, Bake - Place prepared dough in a parchment lined baking sheet and chill for at least 1 hour or up to 2 days. Bake in a 350 degree preheated oven until brown around the edges and golden on top.
5. Dust -Sprinkle confectioners sugar on top.

HOW TO STORE?

They can be stored in a covered container at room temperature for 4 to 5 days.

HOW TO FREEZE?

Baked biscuits (without sugar coating) can be frozen for up to 3 months.

Sugar coated cookies are perfect to be frozen – Place them in a baking sheet and freeze until hard, then transfer them to a sealed freezer safe container and freeze for up to 3 months.

To Freeze Cookie dough - It can be frozen for up to 3 months. Thaw overnight in refrigerator and then at room temperature to shape into balls.

To Thaw 

Remove frozen kaju or cashew nut biscuits out of the container and place them on a plate (in a single layer) and let come to room temperature (uncovered). You can roll or dust them in more powdered sugar to give them a fresh look.

Did you make this recipe? I’d love your feedback! Please let me know by leaving a comment or review below or snap a photo and share on Instagram.

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