cashew-butterscotch cookies + OneFundBoston.org

Sorry for being so m.i.a. lately.
With all that's been going here in Boston, my world was shaken up, busy, crazy with work, etc..
On the day of the Boston Marathon, my husband who works at Mass General Hospital in Boston stayed home.
You can imagine my excitement, my confusion,  my gratefulness, my fear --all rolled into one on how lucky I was that he stayed home that day.  Anything could have happened. Anything!
We were blessed that nothing did, but I was so "spooked" (is that the right word?) that of all days, that was the day he stayed home.
My mind went a-spinning for days on end on the coulda, woulda, shoulda....it's only human nature I guess to do so, but thankfully for work, I submerged myself in to it to get lost and move on.
I haven't been baking for a while, but as I type this on Sunday night, I'm ready to get back into it again on Monday.
There are, as you know, a lot of people who were not so lucky and lost loved ones that day.
And a lot of other victims were badly hurt; their lives changed in an instant and forever.
Please if you can, keep those people in your hearts and if you can help them out with a donation to
OneFundBoston.org
Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick and Boston Mayor Tom Menino have announced the formation of The One Fund Boston, Inc. to help the people most affected by the tragic events that occurred in Boston on April 15, 2013.
Thank you!
Our wonderful city of Boston is strong, a very strong city, with doubly strong resilient people.
It was good to see the Red Sox game last night.
Did you see that Neil Diamond showed up to sing?
Apparently he hopped a plane from california at like 12:30am, showed up at Fenway and asked "Can I sing?". There was no schedule, he just wanted to get here to Boston as quickly as possible in hopes they (Fenway) would let him sing.  As if Fenway would turn down Mr. "Sweet Caroline" himself.
Just like that.  What a great man.
If you didn't see it, here is the link.  (I know it looks as if he was lip-syncing, he wasn't, the song was playing along with him singing).
Brought tears to my eyes; every person in that audience was so proud.
All is well in Boston again...

The idea for these cookies...
Sometimes I buy things at Trader Joe's en masse, take them home and eat them en masse and later have an en masse stomach ache.
Said "en masse" this time was those delish thai-lime cashews.
Gosh those are good!
Once you have too much of one thing, you rarely go back to it for a while; that craving for it goes away.
I had a small amount left and wanted to use them use before the gift of staleness set in.
When in doubt on what to do with leftover sweets--throw in Cookies!
And it worked!
The thai spice, lime and hint of heat go really well in here, you really can't taste the heat that much or maybe my heat-tastebuds are numb from all the years of eating spicy foods?
Up to you if you want to add them, plain, roasted salted cashews is fine too.
But I know a few of you might have leftover trader joe cashews sitting in your cupboard right now.



I usually roll into oversized-tablespoon balls, never press flat, just leave as balls and let the heat of the oven do the rest.

cashew-butterscotch cookies

cookie dough based off of Jacques Torres cc cookie recipe

print recipe

2 cups cake flour

1 2/3 cups bread flour

1 1/4 ts baking soda

1 1/2 ts baking powder

1 1/2 ts coarse salt

2 1/2 sticks (1 1/4 cups) unsalted butter

1 cup light brown sugar, loose pack

1 cup granulated sugar

2 large eggs

1 ½  ts natural vanilla extract

1 cup butterscotch chips or chunks

1 ¼ cups salted, roasted cashews

Sea salt for gently sprinkling tops of cookie dough balls, optional

Sift flours, baking soda, baking powder and salt into a bowl. Set aside.

Using a mixer fitted with paddle attachment, cream butter and sugars together until very light, about 5 minutes.

Add eggs, one at a time, mixing well after each addition. Stir in the vanilla.

Reduce speed to low, add dry ingredients and mix until just combined, 5 to 10 seconds.

By hand, add in the butterscotch chips and cashews.

Cover dough with plastic wrap and refrigerate for a few hours or overnight.

When ready to bake, preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Line a baking sheet with parchment paper or a nonstick baking mat.

I scooped out about oversized tablespoon dough balls, and kept them as balls; did NOT press them flat.

Sprinkle cookie balls lightly with sea salt, making sure to push the salt into cookie dough. (this is an optional, but wonderful step)

Bake about 18-22 minutes or until center is not jiggly and edges are LIGHT golden brown.

Makes about 30-33 cookies.