This is day 2 of the 12 days of Cookies. Check out yesterday’s post on Cottage Cheese Cookies!

My life has been rather complicated of late, on all fronts – my job ending, my boy moving to the other side of the country, family troubles here and there. There are times when I’m so overwhelmed I feel like I can hardly breathe. In those times, there is great solace in the combination of butter, sugar and flour to make something warm, comforting and delicious.

And as a greater distraction, there’s always burnt sugar.

These Dutch Caramel Cashew Cookies were a few steps complicated, but oh…oh… OH so worth it. Chopped cashews go in caramel to create a block of pralines, which is then chopped again to bitsy pieces and incorporated into the dough and coat the outside of the cookies. Though Gourmet’s picture showed small rounds, I stuck to the original instructions and made small cylinders. They baked up a bit messy, but formed wonderfully sugary bars filled with the roasted taste of cashews.

Ah, the sweet relief of a well-baked cookie.

Check out the recipe after the break!

Cashew Praline Cookies
Adapted from Gourmet, 1972
Makes about 18 cookies.

praline:
1/2 cup sugar
2 tablespoons water
1/2 cup finely chopped roasted unsalted cashews

cookies:
1/2 cup unsalted butter
1/3 cup sugar
1 egg yolk
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
1 cup flour

1. Make cashew praline: Coat a piece of foil in butter and set aside. In a heavy skillet cook the sugar and water with a pinch of cream of tartar over moderately high heat, washing down any undissolved sugar that clings to the sides of the skillet with a brush dipped in cold water, until the mixture is a light caramel. Quickly stir in the chopped cashews. Pour the praline onto the buttered piece of foil and with a buttered spatula spread it into a thin sheet. Let it cool until it hardens and chop it coarsely.

2. Preheat the oven to 350F. In a bowl beat butter with sugar until it is creamy. Beat in the egg yolk and vanilla. Stir in 1 cup flour and two-thirds of the chopped praline and mix until combined.

3. Form the dough into cylinders 2 1/2 inches long and 3/4 inch wide. Even more finely chop the remaining praline and gently roll each cylinder in the chopped praline until coated. Place them about 2 inches apart on a parchment-covered cookie sheet. Bake for 12 to 15 minutes, or until they are lightly browned. Let the cookies cool on the sheet for about 1 minute and with a spatula remove them to a rack to cool completely.

Take a look at my fellow bakers choices at their sites:

Jerry at Cooking by the Seat of my Pants, Ben at What’s Cooking. Judy at No Fear Entertaining, Sandy at At the Baker’s Bench, Courtney at Coco Cooks, Kelly at Sass and Veracity, and the wonderful Andrea at Andrea’s Recipes