MACADAMIA TRIANGLES-COOKIES

GREAT COOKIES WITH MY FAVORITE MACADAMIA NUTS.

Recipe is from Good Housekeeping "Best -Loved Desserts"


It's a nice recipe of very delicious cookies. You can bake them for some-speacial occasion, they are perfect for the Holiday season.


1 cup-all-purpose flour
1/4 cup granulated sugar
1/8 tsp salt
6 tbsp cold butter
3 tbsp cold water
1 jar (7 oz) macadamia nuts
2/3 cup packed light brown sugar
1 large egg
2 tsp vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 425 F. Line 9-inch pan with foil, grease foil. If you don't have exact 9-inch pan, I used the slight bigger rectangle one and build up the necessary size with the foil.

In a medium bowl, with a wire whisk, mix flour, sugar , and salt. With knives or pastry blender, cut in butter until mixture resembles coarse crumbs. Sprinkle in water, about 1 tablespoon at a time, mixing lightly with fork after each addition. Help with your hands to moist all the dough. With lightly floured hands, press dough evenly onto bottom of prepared pan. With fork, prick dough at 1-inch intervals to prevent puffing.

Bake crust until golden, 15-20 minutes. Cool completely in pan on a wire rack. Turn your ovens heat to 375 F.

Coarsely chop 1/2 cup macadamia nuts, reserve hem for the topping. In food processor with knife blade attached, pulse remaining macadamia nuts and brown sugar until nuts are finely ground. Add egg and vanilla. Pulse until just combined.

Spread macadamia filling evenly over cooled crust with a spatula. Sprinkle reserved chopped macadamia nuts on top. Bake until filling has set , 20 minutes.

Cool completely in pan on wire rack. When cool , lift foil with pastry out of pan and place on cutting board. Cut into 4 strips, then cut each strip crosswise into 4 squares, cut each square diagonally in half.

P.S. The macadamia nuts are little bit pricier than other nuts, but very delicious. You can find them in your local Nut store, Whole Foods or Turkish grocery stores. I also, think that walnuts would work great  in this recipe.

BASIC BUTTER COOKIES

The recipe is BASIC butter cookies, it means that you can add anything you want to make them your favorite. You can make great Lemon cookies by simply adding 2 tablespoons of fresh lemon juice and 1 tablespoon of finely grated fresh lemon zest. You can turn the in Walnut paradise by rolling the balls of dough in crushed walnuts right before the baking. You can make delicious chocolate sandwiches by melting milk chocolate and dipping your cookies in it. If you are lover of Nutella, then just spread a little bit on your cookie and enjoy the sweet heaven!

BASIC BUTTER COOKIES

2 cups all-purpose flour

1/2 tsp baking powder

1/2 salt

1 1/2 sticks (3/4 cup) unsalted butter softened

1 cup sugar

1 large egg

1/2 tsp vanilla

Whisk together flour, baking powder and salt in a small bowl.

Beat together butter and sugar in a large bowl with mixer until fluffy and white (3 minutes). Beat in egg and vanilla. Reduce speed to low and add flour mixture until just combined.

Form dough into 12 -inch log (2 inches in diameter) on a sheet of plastic wrap and roll up dough in plastic wrap. Chill dough in refrigerator until firm (2-3 hours) (You can keep the dough in refrigerator up to 5 days).

When I am not patient enough and I don't want to wait for dough to get firm, I pinch the little pieces and roll them in the ball shapes, flatten them on the baking pan. Ready to go!

Preheat oven to 375 F.

Cut the slices 1/8-1/4 inch-thick slices from log with a heavy knife to fill 2 ungreased large baking sheets, arranging slices about 1 inch apart. Cookies grow inside the oven, please don't try to squeeze all of them into one sheet. If garnishing with coarse sugar.

Bake cookies, switching position of sheets halfway through baking, until edges are golden. Bake time is 12-15 minutes. Do not overbake!!! Cool on sheets 3 minutes, then transfer with a metal spatula to racks  cool completely.

I bake these cookies for my son's class and send them to school. Kids love them! Recently , I started using organic white flour, organic sugar and organic egg and it makes them guilt-free pleasures.