As
a tribute to my Baskin Robbins memories with Tuck, I researched what is in the
Baseball Nut ice cream and incorporated it into Alice Waters’ Butter Cookies, a recipe that I have
wanted to make for a while now. My research showed that apart from the usual
ice cream ingredients (cream, milk, sugar, corn syrup, whey, vanilla-vanillin
extract, cellulose gum, mono and diglycerides, carrageenan, guar gum, etc.) what
makes Baseball Nut special is the black raspberry ribbon (with questionable
ingredients) and roasted cashews.
So,
I used the two special ingredients from the Baseball Nut ice cream, raspberries
and cashews, to turn the butter cookie recipe into Baseball Nut Butter Cookies.
Let’s
start with the homemade raspberry jam. When I made these cookies a couple of weeks
ago, fresh raspberries were not available just yet, so I made use of my handy
dandy frozen stash from last summer. Homemade jam is easy to make and is pretty
much no fuss, especially if you just make a small batch to use right away.
There’s no need for too much sweetener because it is great to let the real fruit
flavor come out.
Homemade Raspberry Jam (Makes about
half a cup)
1 cup frozen raspberries
1 tbsp honey
½ tbsp sugar
Put frozen raspberries in a small, nonstick pan and turn the heat on medium low. Once you start hearing small, bubbling noises, stir the raspberries to let the other sides cook, about 3 minutes. Stir in the honey and sugar. Cook for about 10 more minutes or until the raspberries melt and the mixture starts to thicken. Turn the heat off and move the jam to a small bowl and let cool.
Use
immediately or tightly cover and keep in the refrigerator for up to 3
days.
In
true Let’s Cook and Be Friends fashion,
I used whole wheat pastry flour instead of all-purpose and lessened the amount
of sugar by 25%. Whole wheat flour is my thing now… I love the heavy texture
and the hint of sweetness that it lends. The sweetness from the raspberry jam
and white chocolate chips made the sugar cut back necessary. And guess
what? My special cookies came out just fine better than fine.
Melt in your mouth sweet, tart, and buttery goodness with cashew crunches. These cookies are rich, lovely, and full of raspberry flavor!
Baseball Nut Butter Cookies (Makes about 54
small cookies)
Inspired
and adapted from Alice Waters’ Butter Cookies, The Art of Simple Food2 sticks unsalted butter, softened
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
½ tsp salt
1 egg
4 tbsp raspberry jam (homemade or store bought)
1 tbsp milk
2 ¼ cups whole wheat pastry flour (sifted)
½ cup chopped cashews
½ cup white chocolate chips
tad of butter to grease cookie sheet
In
a large bowl, cream the butter and sugar with an electric hand mixer on low
speed, until light and fluffy. Add in the vanilla extract, salt, egg, raspberry
jam, and milk, and mix on low until everything is well incorporated.
Add the flour into the butter mixture a half cup at a time and continue to mix on low until everything is well-combined.
Fold in the cashews and white chocolate chips.
Move the oven rack to the middle position and preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.
Generously grease a large cookie sheet with butter. Fill a cookie dough scoop with the batter and plop the ball of dough onto the cookie sheet. Place the cookie dough balls about half an inch apart.
Bake
for 24-26 minutes, until the bottom turns brown and the top turns a light,
golden brown. As soon as you take the cookies out of the oven, move them to a
cooling rack using a cookie spatula (use an oven mitt and be careful not to
burn your little fingers!).
Whole wheat flour is also my thing. You're right. It has a dense nutty texture. Have you tried baking with almond flour? It's amazing I've been making biscuits with it. These cookies look awesome. I like your healthy spin on them and you can never go wrong with jam.
ReplyDeleteWow... You are a good chef... These cookies look good. How does it taste? Maybe gooooooood? kkk I think so~ I wanna have a chance to try it oneday.
ReplyDelete