My lack of cashew-containing recipes here at BoB is not due to any lack of love for them. On the contrary, cashews rank right up there with pecans and hazelnuts for me. It just seems that they don’t find themselves in that many baked goods. Or, maybe I’m just looking in the wrong places.
The recipe for these cookies comes from King Arthur Flour Whole Grain Baking, a book I have very much wanted for a while now. I forget now what finally made me cave in and buy it, but I’ve been ogling its pages for a few weeks now trying to figure out what to make first.
The simplicity of these cookies appealed to me. A short list of ingredients and an impressively easy set of directions are always a plus.
For those of you who like sweet and salty combinations, these cookies are definitely for you. I used cashews that were very lightly salted, and these were still quite salty to me. In a good way.
These salty cookies are one of those magical kind that manage to be crunchy, crispy, and chewy at the same time. I usually prefer chewy cookies, but that little bit of crispiness really suits them well.
While I had every reason to believe that these would be good, they turned out to be so much more that I thought they would be. They certainly aren’t much to look at. All of the components are essentially the same color. But, as far as taste goes, they are hard to beat.
Ingredients
- 1/2 cup unsalted butter, softened
- 3/4 cup granulated sugar
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1/4 teaspoon baking powder
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1 large egg
- 2 cups old-fashioned rolled oats, ground for 30 seconds in a food processor
- 2 cups salted cashew pieces or coarsely chopped cashews
- extrafine salt for topping*
Instructions
Preheat oven to 350°.
In a medium bowl, beat butter, sugar, salt, baking powder, vanilla, and egg. Add oats and mix. Then, mix in cashews.
Drop dough by tablespoonfuls onto lightly greased or lined baking sheets. Sprinkle each cookie with salt. Flatten cookies to about 3/8-inch thick.
Bake 12-14 minutes, or until light golden brown. Remove from the oven and cool on the baking pans.
Notes
*I substituted sea salt to make the salt more pronounced visually.
Cook time is per baking sheet.
Recipe adapted from King Arthur Flour Whole Grain Baking.
April 29th, 2008 at 11:49 pm
I hardly ever see cashews in baking either – I wonder why. These look delicious and very wholesome
April 30th, 2008 at 1:45 am
I like to sweet / salty combination a lot..expecially when it’s chocolate plus salt..it makes me go crazy
so thank you very much for this post…they look delicious!
Have a nice day
Silvia
April 30th, 2008 at 7:00 am
They do look so good. And I agree that that sweet/salty combination satisfies the taste buds and makes for a great outcome every time.
April 30th, 2008 at 7:44 am
They look so wonderful, Jen. I have salted cashew nuts at home and definitely need a recipe for them .;)
April 30th, 2008 at 9:30 am
I love anything with cashews – and these sound fantastic!
April 30th, 2008 at 9:34 am
These do look good! Sounds like something my husband would like!
April 30th, 2008 at 9:42 am
jennifer, I run out of adjectives to describe your treats. Gooey is what always comes to mind. This time maybe chewy and soft which is my favorite kind of cookie texture. Again, you just made me want to bite the screen!
April 30th, 2008 at 9:50 am
I hardly ever use cashews in baking either, but I love to eat them out of hand. I’ll have to give these cookies a try, they look great!
April 30th, 2008 at 11:30 am
These look so good. I have never put cashews in anything so I can’t wait to try these.
April 30th, 2008 at 3:34 pm
I love sweet and salty combinations and I really love cashews. These cookies sound perfect for me!
April 30th, 2008 at 5:21 pm
Oh sweet and salty… one of my favorite flavor combos. I bet this is so tasty!
April 30th, 2008 at 7:53 pm
Thanks, everyone, for your always lovely comments!
May 1st, 2008 at 8:00 am
mmmmmmmmmm….cashews..are sooo good….Great Looking Cookies….
May 1st, 2008 at 8:03 am
These look wonderful! Putting them on my list of things to try on a rainy day…
May 1st, 2008 at 8:42 am
I’ve wanted to make a batch of salty oatmeal cookies for a while now, but these sound like a good alternative. I even have an unopened can of cashews left over from the cinnamon-cashew brittle I make at Christmas. I may get up and make these cookies right now. They sound great.
May 1st, 2008 at 8:50 am
Is there really no flour in these cookies? I’ve got no problem with that, of course! The look great, but it was the word “salted” in the title that got me. I love KA recipes.
May 1st, 2008 at 11:01 am
Thanks, Hendria and caracakes!
KW, that cinnamon-cashew brittle sounds great. I don’t think I’ve ever seen that before.
Julie, there really is no flour. A little different, but so good! I’m also a big KA fan.
May 1st, 2008 at 12:14 pm
Hmm… Not a huge fan of cashews, but LOVE the combination of sweet n salty. It’s actually become one of my favorites. Now the husband on the other hand loves cashews, so I should make these *especially* for him (wink, wink.) So what if they happen to be sweet n salty too? Who says I can’t benefit from my own thoughtfulness and efforts…
May 1st, 2008 at 6:09 pm
Sandie, I think benefiting yourself as well as others is just being efficient.
May 1st, 2008 at 9:34 pm
the only other sweet cashew recipes I’ve seen lately have been the salted cashew icecreams appearing on several blogs.. though I can’t remember which ones they were now – they could be easily found through the food blog search tool, I’ m sure.
May 2nd, 2008 at 7:35 am
Hmmm. I have unsalted cashews from Trader Joe’s. I wonder if those would work. Nice close up pic!
May 2nd, 2008 at 1:23 pm
I have been reviewing your blog and everything looks so darn good! I am a fan for sure!
May 2nd, 2008 at 2:37 pm
Coincidently, I made these yummy little cashew cookies last weekend.
May 2nd, 2008 at 5:15 pm
Rachel, that ice cream would be amazing! I’ll have to search for that, for sure.
RecipeGirl, unsalted cashews should be fine. I use those some times and just add my own salt to them.
Janna, thanks so much!
SAWII, thanks for the recipe link. There aren’t that many cashew recipes out there!
May 2nd, 2008 at 8:33 pm
We really like sweet & salty.
I’ll have to try these out.
May 3rd, 2008 at 1:34 am
I’ll take a cashew over a pecan or walnut any day, and those salty cashew cookies look great!
May 3rd, 2008 at 3:10 pm
I am looking through your blog and everything look so delicious and sinful . Can’t wait to try some of your great recipe out.
May 3rd, 2008 at 8:00 pm
Jane, let me know what you think if you try these.
Chuck, I would take pecans first, but I leave the walnuts to anyone and everyone else.
Thanks, Gertrude!
May 4th, 2008 at 1:01 pm
amazing! i need to make these, i have no choice now
May 4th, 2008 at 2:02 pm
mmmmmmm soooooooooo good!
May 4th, 2008 at 4:41 pm
Spotted Apron, I hope you like them!
emma, that says it all!
May 7th, 2008 at 10:40 pm
Tried these with dark chocolate chunks added. Very, very nice. Thanks for posting about them -
May 8th, 2008 at 8:16 am
Turi, I’m glad you liked them!
May 18th, 2008 at 12:32 pm
Oh, geeze. I have to have these!
May 18th, 2008 at 5:59 pm
Emiline, they are very good. I hope you’ll give them a try!
April 26th, 2010 at 6:21 am
Just made these this weekend…DELISH!! Perfect combination of sweet and salty. They have all been devoured! Thanks for another winner, Jennifer!!!!!
February 21st, 2011 at 10:00 am
This recipe looked good, so 36 cookies went into the oven…only about 12 went onto the plate…along with a big bowl of crumbs. there is not enough to hold the oats and cashew bits together. the crumbs taste good but can’t be served.