Christmas Cookies Day 2 – Cashew Caramel Shortbread Cookies

Today is the first full official day of winter and boy did it come in with a BANG! This is a screen shot of today’s temperatures where I live. For those of you on Celsius, this is in FARENHEIT and believe me, this is VERY COLD! I know some of you are even colder right now.

This is the view from my bedroom window. All of our lakes/ponds are completely frozen over. Directly behind these trees in our backyard is a lake, but it is an ice skating rink right now. The geese are frozen in place.

With weather like this, I am very glad I will be indoors, baking today. It is a perfect day for baking more cookies.

Today’s cookies are cashew caramel shortbread cookies. I used my own caramels for the sauce/topping. Some have plain caramels and some have the salted cashew and chocolate caramels. The Caramels Are Done! I have added another 6 dozen to my batch for tomorrow’s services. A couple of more batches, and tomorrow’s cookies will be done. Store bought caramels are perfectly fine to use as well. Don’t feel like you have to make your own. I just had some leftover from when I did make them, and I have to say, my caramels are MUCH BETTER than store bought ones. 🙂

Cashew Caramel Shortbread Cookies

1 2/3 cup flour

1/2 tsp salt

2 1/2 cups roasted, salted cashews, divided

2 TBSP + 1 tsp canola oil

1/2 cup or 1 stick of softened butter

3/4 cup firmly packed brown sugar

1/2 cup granulated sugar

1 egg

1 tsp vanilla

24 caramels or about 1 cup of cararmels

1/2 cup heavy whipping cream

Preheat the oven to 350*F.

Line cookie sheets with parchment paper.

Coarsely chop 1 cup of the cashews and set aside. Put the remaining cashews, along with the canola oil into a food processor and pulse until you have a creamy butter, for about 2 minutes.

Combine the flour and salt together and set aside.

Mix the butter, sugars, egg, vanilla and cashew butter together, then add the flour and salt and mix just until everything is blended. Do not over mix or you will have tough cookies.

Fold in the chopped cashews.

Drop about 1 TBSP of dough onto the parchment paper lined baking sheets and form into a ball. Press lightly and bake for about 10-12 minutes, or just until the edges turn a light golden brown.

Allow the cookies to cool completely before adding the caramel topping. For the topping melt the caramels together with the cream until it is all melted and creamy. Then drizzle over the cookies.

Allow the caramel sauce to set, then you can store them until you are ready to eat them all up. YUMMY! They are rich and creamy and buttery and nutty all at the same time.

For those of you who live in these cold, frigid parts like I do, stay inside, stay warm, and stay safe. Merry Christmas, Happy Chanukkah and Happy Holidays to all. ‘Til next time.

Juneau, Larry, aka the Daddy Dog and Vinnie all say Merry Christmas.

I don’t think Juneau likes her Santa hat. 🙂