sweet miscellany

You know that $7 or $8 jar of cashew butter you paid for in the store? It’s probably got added oil, sugar, and other things you don’t really need. Wouldn’t it be lovely if you could make your own without any additives and adjust it just right for your tastes? If you have a powerful food processor in working order, you are in luck. I would love to tell you that making homemade cashew butter is laborious and I slaved over it all day for you, but that would be a bold faced lie. It is quite simple. So simple, in fact, that you will slap yourself for having ever paid money for cashew butter in the grocery store.

This time around, I made my cashew butter with only roasted cashews and nothing else because I was planning on using it in a recipe and wanted to control the salt level. Feel free to add salt or honey to suit your tastebuds. Or, if you are feeling adventurous, maybe you could throw in some curry powder or other spices to complement your cashew butter.

This first step is hard, so pay attention: grab a few handfuls of raw, unsalted cashews.

Next, place them on a baking sheet and roast them at 375 degrees until they become fragrant and they start to turn golden, about 7 minutes or so.

Let the cashews cool a bit, then put them in the bowl of a food processor (along with some salt or honey if you would like) and turn it on high. During the first few minutes, it will look like cashew meal. Next, it will start sticking to the sides. When this starts to happen, stop the processor every now and then to scrape it down with a spatula. At some point, it will stop sticking to the sides and will start to form a bit of a ball. At this point it is done and will have formed a nice, thick cashew butter. Don’t be discouraged if it doesn’t look like what you buy at the store. It will not look like the store bought version as you do not have a high powdered grinder and are not adding additional oil. Store your homemade cashew butter in a jar and keep it in the fridge between uses to prevent it from spoiling quickly. One of my favorite ways to eat it is to spread it on whole wheat toast and top it with thinly sliced apples for a nice breakfast or snack, but the possibilities are endless!

Sometimes I test or create a cookie or sweet because of a brainstorm over whether or not certain flavors will work well together. I could be in the middle of doing something completely unrelated to cookies and all of the sudden I will have a cookie epiphany. An idea will pop into my head and I immediately have to write it down so I won’t forget it later. I have a folder on my desk whose only purpose is to house the various post-its and random pieces of paper that have ideas written on them for future baking endeavors.

A random brainstorm is how this cookie came to be. I think I may have been on a walk and all of the sudden I started wondering how well lemon zest, orange zest, raw pistachios, and olive oil would taste in a cookie. I think walks allow my brain to wander and apparently, it always wanders to sweets. I guess I can live with that since some lovely cookies have come out of it.

The olive oil may sound a little funny in this cookie but it works really well with the lemon and orange zest. You could make this cookie gluten free by using a gluten free flour mix and you could make it vegan by using agave instead of honey.

Citrus, Pistachio, and Olive Oil Cookies
These are best treated as more of a drop cookie: use a small cookie scoop, drop them on the sheet, and chill them for about 10 minutes prior to baking. I garnished the top of each with a whole pistachio prior to baking, but feel free to do whatever your heart desires. This recipe will make 2 dozen tbsp sized cookies.

1 1/2 cups whole wheat pastry flour
1 tbsp arrowroot starch
1/2 tsp fine grain sea salt
1/4 tsp baking soda
2/3 cup honey
1/3 cup extra virgin olive oil
1/2 cup finely chopped raw pistachios, plus more whole pistachios for garnish
zest of 1 orange
zest of 1 lemon

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees.

Whisk together the dry ingredients and the pistachios in a medium bowl and set aside.

In a separate bowl, whisk together the honey and oil until well combined, then whisk in the lemon and orange zest so that it is evenly distributed.

Fold the dry ingredients into the wet until it just comes together into a somewhat stiff dough. Using a cookie scoop (or a spoon, or tbsp measuring spoon), scoop out the dough and place on a lined cookie sheet about 2 inches apart (they will spread!). Press a whole pistachio onto the top of the cookie (optional). If you would like the cookies to not spread as much, you can refrigerate the shaped dough for about 10 to 15 minutes. Otherwise, let the shaped dough sit for a few minutes, then bake for 7 to 9 minutes until the edges and bottoms are just golden. It is best to take these out earlier rather than later as they will dry out easily if over baked. Enjoy!