Warm spices, rich flavours

I love spices but I don’t use them as enough as I would like to. Especially in cakes and bakes. Recently I came across a recipe for cashew nuts and cardamom biscuits which caught my eye; it took me a couple of weeks to actually find the time to bake them, but I am glad I did!
Apparently this is a type of biscuit popular in India, and it wouldn’t surprise me, given the use of the beautifully scented cardamom. As usual, I modified the recipe found on a fellow blogger’s website to try my own spin on them, but I fully agree with her, they are fantastic. They have a strange texture, crumbly and they are not too sweet, but have a gorgeous aroma and they go extremely well with a coffee and I am sure, a cup of chai.

I also loved styling the shoot – I do not usually have enough time nor patience for such styling but I often try to make an effort because the photos can look good, and I am pretty pleased with the results actually.

If anyone bakes these, do let me know what you think. I brought them to my NCT class and they seemed to go down well.     

Recipe for cardamom and coffee cookie

• 70 g toasted cashew nuts
• 230 g butter, softened and cut into cubes
• 250 g plain flour
• 140 g icing sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla essence
• 5 cardamom pods
• 20ml strong coffee, cooled down
• A pinch of salt
  
  

Toast the cashews in a pan for one minute over high heat. Be careful not to let them burn: move the pan often and, if necessary, reduce the cooking time. When their aroma begins to spread throughout the kitchen, they are ready.
Retrieve the cardamom seeds, put them in a blender together with the cashews and blend them finely
Sift the flour with the salt in a bowl, add the chopped cashews and 40 g of sugar and incorporate the butter rubbing, until crumbly. Finally add the vanilla and the coffee. Shape the dough into a ball, wrap it in cling film and let it rest in the fridge for an hour.
Heat the oven on to 160c degrees, fan-assisted mode. Line two baking trays with greaseproof paper or silpat.
Shape the dough into balls, and arrange them on the tray, about two inches apart from each other.
Bake for about twenty minutes: the should not get too dark around the edges.
Once cooked, take them out of the oven and leave them to rest for about 8m, then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely. Finally, roll them in a bowl full of icing sugar and serve in a tray. They keep well in an air tight container for a few days