Cashew Nut Cookies as We Call "Cookie Singapore"

Perfect Bite

These cookies are quite well-known in Thailand. but I never thought of making them. Yeah, not sure why. I think it's because they don't seem easy to make? Every time when our friends went to visit Thailand, they always brought back these cookies for us and I did a happy dance afterward. I like the nutty smell/taste, and they are sweet and salty at the same time in one bite.

Until recently, I've had enough courage to look for the recipe and get my hands on it. I found a couple Thai sites that seemed to be promising. The first thing my eyes were focused on was ingredients. Sometimes, the availability of ingredients isn't good here in the US. Dang! - this is easier than what I had thought, I said out loud to myself. I was excited about this and couldn't wait to experiment it. The main ingredient is of course cashew nuts which I find fascinating to be in cookies unlike other common nuts - walnuts, almonds, and macadamia for example.

The difficult part was to translate the Thai name ingredients to the English name. I'm not familiar with the words they use but thanks to the technology of a famous search engine to help me translate it to English! Normally, these cookies would be in a round shape but I had a fancy cookie cutter that I'm itchy to use. They make cute cookies!

In Thailand, they call these Cookie Singapore or Singapore Cookies for the English version. How the name got adopted, you ask? Thailand and Singapore are not far by distance and Thai's adopted the cookies when they went to visit and brought back to Thailand. It got famous among Thai's and they learned to make their own. The authentic cookies are supposed to be soft but Thai's like it crispy so the recipe got tweaked a bit.

The key of making these cookies are 1) no kneading, because you want the cookies to be crumbled and melt in your mouth, 2) Do not over beat, because the dough will be stiff and dense, 3) Refrigerate the dough for an easier roll-out and cut process, 4) Leaving it sitting in a fridge for the flavor to develop and absorb into the dough.

Warning: These cookies are addicting. You will hardly stop yourself from eating for more!

Cashew Nut Cookies

Yield: 50 cookies approximately

Ingredients:

2 2/3 cups AP flour
1 large egg
1 egg yolk
2/3 cup sugar
1/4 cup cashew nut for grinding
1/2 cup cashew nut, halves for topping
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
1 cup vegetable shortening
3 Tbs vegetable oil

Directions:

• Sift four, salt, and baking powder twice.
• Put 1/4 cup of cashew nut in a food processor and grind it to make like coarse powder.
• Add sugar in a food processor and process with ground nuts until it's mixed and creamy.
• Add egg, oil, and shortening in a food processor and pulse a few times to mix. Do not over mix. If your food processor isn't big enough, you can do this step in a stand mixer and use a stir mode.
• Remove the dough from a food processor or mixer. Wrap with plastic wrap and leave in a fridge for about 30 mins. 
• Preheat oven to 400 F.
• Remove the dough from the fridge. Lightly flour your working area. Roll the dough out with a rolling pin to make it 1 cm thickness.Try to have the same thickness throughout the dough so that it's baked evenly.
• Use a cookie cutter with about 1 inch diameter to cut the dough.
• Arranged cut dough on a prepared baking sheet with some space apart.
• Mix egg yolk with a little of water to make eggwash.
• Brush each cookie dough with eggwash and place halve cashew nut on top.
• Bake about 10-12 mins or until it's golden brown.

After refrigerating for 30 mins

Ready to go in the oven!

Smell heavenly

Yum