This Australian summer heat has got us dreaming of cooler months. Every other day, the news tells us of raging bush fires and soaring 40°C+ temperatures around the country. Very depressing indeed. It’s a good thing we live near the coast, so we get cooler breezes. Also, thank god for air-conditioners! Still, the risk of getting sunburnt is disgustingly high when you go outside. Slip, slop, slap that sunscreen on, you guys!
Seasonal observations aside, Chinese New Year is just over a week away! This year, it falls on the 31st of January and it’ll be the year of the horse. As a kid born in the middle of 1990, this’ll be my lucky year. Yep, I’m a horse. And if you are a horse as well, allow me to share with you what this source says about us:
“Being born a Horse, there are many contradictions in their character. Horses are proud yet sweet-natured, arrogant yet oddly modest in their approach to love, envious but tolerant, conceited yet humble. They want to belong, yet they are burdened by their need for independence. They need love and crave intimacy yet often feel cornered, pressured. But the truth is, the Horse is an individual, who depends only on their own wits and labour to get what they want.”
Well, believe what you will! I’m sure some people will see the horse in themselves, but I’m sceptical. These are pretty darn broad characteristics anyway, and you could probably argue that anyone and everyone will have exhibited these traits at one point or another in their lives!
Anyway, we have a recipe for you to celebrate the approaching Chinese New Year. Last year, we featured these amazingly fragrant peanut cookies, which were a huge hit! This year, we ground up some crunchy cashews and made some delectable cashew nut cookies (腰果饼 yāo guǒ bǐng), famously known for their crackly tops and golden glossiness from the obligatory egg wash! They are perfectly sweet and so buttery, crumbly and rich.
Like most cookies that use nut flours, these crunch delightfully and melt in your mouth soon after. We randomly decided to add some full cream milk powder to the cookies. It is one ingredient that knowledgeable bakers use to give their CNY cookies that sinfully smooth, ultra-melty texture when you bite into them. I think it worked wonderfully for us.
ANGIE & JAMES DO STUFF 
I haven’t baked in ages, and these are going right on my ever-growing to-make list. you’re so talented!
thanks for sharing! it is on my to-bake list now!
Yum! These cookies look delicious and so beautiful! I might try to make these for Chinese New Year. Thanks for sharing!
😄😄 was, these cashew buttery cookies look so amazing & wonderful too, Yum Yum Yummm.
Brilliant! The photos and the product look as professional as any I have ever seen. Job very well done
I wish you a happy Chinese New Year! :-) These cookies look amazing and must be really delicious!! Very nice recipe!
Yum these look delicious! Thanks for stopping by my page.
wow these look awesome!
These look and sound fantastic!
Cashews are my favorite nut, and sweets are my favorite food group, so something tells me I’ll be trying these cookies VERY soon.
Seeing the pic of the cashews ground up in the food processor makes me think of making pesto. I almost always use cashews instead of pine nuts. I even used it to make white pizza once– http://youmustlovefood.com/2012/05/11/recipe-white-pizza-with-chicken-cashew-pesto/
Yum these look amazing! I can’t imagine it being so hot in Australia, it is freezing in Canada I avoid going outside as much as possible. A belated Happy Chinese New Year to you :)
Your photos are gorgeous!
Also, stop making me drool.
Hi
May I know what is the amount of all purpose flour, corn flour and milk powder in grams?
Tks!
thanks for sharing! it is on my to-bake list now.
Just baked these cookies according to your recipe this afternoon. From start to end (including washing up), was a 3-hour affair, as I had a small oven and could only bake in 4 batches. The cookies turned out delicious. I am very happy and grateful for this recipe!
This sounds delicious.AS I am gluten sensitive, will try with gluten free flour!AM looking forward to it!
My cookies turned out with lovely flavour but were way too crumbly to pick up. I notice that your recipe used 3/4 cup of flour while the original recipe you’d adapted from used 2 cups of flour. It’s a big difference. I’ll try this again with more flour to see how it turns out.
Hello! Thank you for the feedback. I’m sorry to hear that they turned out too crumbly! These cookies are meant to be slightly crumbly and very light and airy, but if you find they are impossible to pick up, then something isn’t right.
The reason I decreased the flour amount was because it struck me that the amount of butter used plus the single egg yolk would not create enough of a binder for the combined 2 cups flour, 200 grams ground cashew nuts, 1/2 cup cornflour & 1/2 cup sugar. If anything, the extra flour would probably cause the end product to be denser and also drown out the cashew flavour and the light airiness of the cookie. Of course, feel free to try using 2 cups of flour as stated in the original recipe, but then I’d suggest you not add the 1/4 cup of milk powder mentioned in my recipe as this was added to increase the dry ingredient quota.
Hope it works for you the second time around! :)
I’m not a complete nut for cashews, but these photos nearly have me convinced. Gorgeous!
Yum, this looks delicious!
I am intrigued and must try this. Looks very good!
These look so delicious !
Looks amazing :) love these cookies! thanks for liking my post on food in Singapore by the way :)
Reblogged this on Joanne In The Kitchen.
Thanks for your like, Angela. Happy New Year! Your posts look great.