Baseball Nut Butter Cookies

I baked special cookies a couple of weeks ago to take to my friend, Tuck’s, memorial service. In a previous blog post, I mentioned how much he loved Baskin Robbins’ Baseball Nut flavor. We had great conversations while enjoying the cold treat. Those were good times that I will forever hold dear in my heart. 

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.      

Now let’s get on with the cookies. These babies are truly special and I think Tuck would have enjoyed them.

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 Food
 
2 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!).

 Enjoy these little cookie scoops of delight!