Cashew Nut Chocolate Cookies

It feels like it's been ages since I last posted an entry in this blog. That's because it's been more than a month since my last entry, the longest break I've had. The month of Ramadhan is traditionally a very busy month for me. Work  & family commitments, coupled with Ramadhan activities & lots of baking during the weekends, left me hardly any time to keep up with my blog...... Likewise, the Eid celebrations had kept me busy during the weekends with visits to our relatives & friends' & guests who came over to my place. 

I'll be sharing with you the recipes of my Eid bakings, especially those I've  not shared yet, in the next coming entries. For a start, I'm posting a Hari Raya cookie recipe that was hugely popular in Singapore about 30 years ago. Remember Chocolate Chip Cookies? Not the American version, I think it's the Asian version...  I remember making them every year for Hari Raya. It was so popular that there was nothing left by the second day of Eid, Back then, during the pre-internet era, one way to get hold of this prized recipe was to attend the weekend baking classes. I was lucky, there were a few generous people who shared the recipe with me, all from different instructors. Amazingly, the recipes were all identical! I wonder who created the recipe...

Anyway, my source of  this recipe is Mdm Zaleha Osman, the name printed next to the recipe. It was given to me by my best friend then.  I've decided to change the name of this recipe to Cashew Nut Chocolate Cookies so as not to be confused with the Chocolate Chip Cookies that we all know.

Cashew Nut Chocolate Cookies
Recipe by Zaleha Osman.

Cookies:
4 oz butter
2 oz powder sugar
1/2 tsp vanilla essence
3 oz ground cashew nut (I toasted it lightly & left to cool before adding to mixture.))
4 oz top flour (I used plain flour.)
2 oz chocolate block - grated

Topping:
renchoco / mohrenglanz chocolate or any compound chocolate - chopped  (I used Selbourne.)

Place chopped chocolate in a heatproof bowl. Place bowl over a pot of simmering water. Stir chocolate until melted. Ensure that bottom of bowl doesn't touch the water. Also, ensure that not a drop of water goes into the chocolate as that will affect the consistency of the chocolate. Once melted, remove bowl from pot & wipe bottom of bowl dry.

Method:

1. Combine butter, sugar & vanilla in a bowl & mix until mixture turned pale. 
2. Add groud cashew nut,  flour & grated chocolate. Mix until just incorporated. 
3. Cover bowl with plastic & leave aside to allow dough to rest for half an hour. 
4. Shape dough into  balls. Place each ball into a mini foil cake liner & press slightly. (Note:  the size of the balls should be such that, after baking, the cookie will fill up about 3/4 full. The cookie will rise slightly after baking.) Bake at 180 deg C for about 20 minutes. Remove from oven & leave to cool.
5. Pour melted chocolate over cookie & leave aside until chocolate hardens. If you wish, you may sprinkle colourful jimmies or chopped toasted cashew nut on the chocolate. You may also place the cookies in the fridge for about 5 minutes, but not more than 10 minutes,  to accelerate the hardening process. 
6. Store cookies in an air-tight container in room temperature.