A Kendall Oberto Recipe (#ROTD)
Macadamia-Almond Christmas Cookie
A holiday standard, this recipe comes from Nancy Fuller at foodnetwork.com. Deliciously crispy, full of flavor and wonderful ingredients.
Ingredients
- 2 cups macadamia nuts
- 1 1/2 cups sugar
- 12 tbls (1 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter, at room temperature
- 1/2 cup vegetable shortening
- 1 tbls vanilla
- 1 tbls almond extract
- 2 3/4 cup all-purpose flour
- 1 1/4 tsp baking soda
- 1/2 tsp fine salt
- 2 cups white chocolate chips
- 1 cup pistachios, roughly chopped
- 1 cup dried cranberries
- nonstick cooking spray
- 48-60 red and white striped white chocolate peppermint kiss candies
Instructions
- Put the macadamia nuts in a food processor and process until smooth and buttery (this should measure about 1 cup). Add the sugar, butter and shortening and pulse until blended. You may need to scrape down the sides along the way. Add the eggs and vanilla and almond extracts and pulse until blended. Combine the flour, baking soda and salt n a bowl then add and pulse until just incorporated. Transfer the cookie dough to a medium bowl and fold in the white chocolate chips, pistachios and cranberries. Cover and refrigerate the dough for 30 minutes. Adjust the oven racks to the upper and lower thirds and preheat the oven to 375° degrees F. Coat 2 baking sheets with cooking spray or line with parchment paper.Scoop out heaping tablespoons of dough (I use a #50 scoop in hopes of getting consistent cookies), roll into balls and space about 2 inches apart on the prepared baking sheets (12 per sheet). You will need to bake the cookies in batches; be sure to allow the baking sheets to cool in between batches.Bake until the bottoms and edges of the cookies are golden brown but the middles are still soft, about 10 minutes. I swap the cookies top to bottom and front to back (rotating 90 degrees) in the middle of the cooking time. The cookies will bake a bit after they come out of the oven so don't worry if they are a little puffy when they come out. Press a candy kiss into each warm cookie as soon as the come out of the oven. Allow the cookies to cool on the baking sheet for a couple minutes and then transfer to a rack to cool completely. Make sure the kisses are completely set before putting the cookies away, probably 20 minutes or so. Store at room temperature in an airtight container for up to 3 days or freeze for later use.Happy Eating!!
