Feral Cooks

Here’s an easy cookie that’s not too sweet. Its distinct cardamom flavor sets it apart from other cookies and gives it a bit of an Indian flavor.

While they’re easy to make, shaping the cookies into the crescent shape is kind of a pain in the butt in that it takes awhile.

I guess I don’t have a ton to say about these except that they’re worth a try.

What you’ll need:

• 2.5 cups all-purpose flour
• 0.75t ground cardamom (use an entire teaspoon for a stronger cardamom flavor)
• 0.5t ground cinnamon
• 0.5t kosher salt
• 1.5 cups powdered sugar, divided
• 1cup pecans or cashews
• 2 sticks unsalted butter, room temperature
• 1T vanilla extract

What to do:

Begin heating your oven to 350°F and line two baking sheets with parchment paper.

Whisk the first four ingredients in a medium bowl, then combine a 1/2 cup of the sugar and nuts in a food processor; pulsing until a coarse meal forms.

In a larger bowl, beat the butter and vanilla with an electric mixer until creamy. Add the nut/sugar mixture and beat to blend. Add the rest of the dry ingredients and blend well—the dough will still be moist, yet crumbly. Knead the dough about 4-5 times.

To shape the cookies, take a rounded tablespoon of dough and form it into an oval, then carefully work it into a crescent shape. The first couple may not work out very well, but you’ll get the hang of it.

Put the crescents on the baking sheets about an inch apart and bake until the bottoms are golden. This can take anywhere between 12-23 minutes, so keep an eye on them.

Then the cookies are cooked, roll them in the remaining powdered sugar while they’re still a bit warm. Finish cooling them on a rack, and serve.

These toffee squares make for a quick and easy dessert or snack. I found the basic recipe on epicurious, but I did make some changes, based on my preferences.

If I were to make these again, I’d just skip the chocolate topping and make the crust into cookies. It was that good. In fact, the chocolate kind of detracted from the crust/cookie part.

What you’ll need for the crust:

• 2 sticks) unsalted butter at room temperature
• 1 cup firmly packed light brown sugar
• 1 large egg yolk
• 1t vanilla extract
• 0.25t salt
• 2 cups all-purpose flour

What you’ll need for the topping:

• 8-9 oz of broken up milk chocolate or milk chocolate chips
• 1 cup chopped toasted almonds (I substituted broken heath bar crunch, which goes great with this)

What to do:

Preheat your oven to 350°F, and line a 9-by-13-inch baking pan with parchment paper.

For the crust: in a large bowl, with an electric mixer, beat the butter and sugar on medium speed until light (about 2 minutes). Then beat in the egg yolk, vanilla, and salt. On the lowest speed, gradually beat in the flour just until mixed. The resulting dough will be stiff.

Make sure the dough is well mixed and pat it evenly into the bottom of the baking pan. You’ll be really glad you used parchment paper, by the way.

Bake in the center of the oven until pale gold on top, about 20 minutes. I slightly overcooked mine, which made the crust more brittle than it should have been. So be careful.

Remove the pan from the oven and scatter the chocolate pieces evenly over the crust. Return the pan to the oven for 1 minute. Remove the pan and spread the chocolate evenly over the crust. Sprinkle evenly with the almonds or heath bar crunch.

Let cool completely in the pan on a wire rack. When cool remove from the pan and slice to whatever size works best for you.