Comfort Cookies - Lemon White Chocolate Macadamia

Cookies are not my forte. I love them, but I very rarely make them, because something always seems to go horribly awry. I suffer from some sort of Crazy Cookie Curse either that, or I am the victim of the Biscuit Banshee. Whichever it may be, I am usually better off simply saving my butter for other pursuits.

That being said, there are a few special cookie recipes that I do make, mainly because I have made them so many times I can do it with my eyes closed... Zucchini Cookies with Lime glaze, Shortbreads, Potato Chip Cookies (thanks to Grandma), Linzer Augen, Gingerbread and, more recently, thanks to Spryte, Rolo cookies.

These cookies are in my list as well. I picked them up awhile back and somehow these have become a comfort cookie to me. I still don't understand why, as I am not a big fan of White "Chocolate", but when mixed with Lemon, Macadamia nuts and just a hint of Molasses... Yeah, Baby!!! I am ALL over it!!

So why am I am making comfort cookies? Well, my dinner, this evening, was annoying at best. I had grandiose ideas of Baby Artichokes and Pasta. What I ended up with was 45 minutes of my life lost forever as I pulled leaves and trimmed stems, dunking the resulting hearts in lemon water. Incidentally, I have decided that I am not fond of fresh artichokes... Too much work for too little return. They were horribly bitter last night. Yeah, I am over 'em...

So after failed dinner, I decided I needed cookies. See, makes perfect sense, don't it? :)

The nice thing was that I got to play with some of my vanilla beans. I haven't really been baking anything that warranted using them. I had purchased 3 Tonga Vanilla beans several months ago, so I used one of those this evening. Normally I use extract, but one of the advantages of Vanilla caviar,

is that is adds to the texture. I figured, it's a "tropical" cookie, so why not add a little "sand" to the texture.

Lemon White Chocolate Macadamia Nut Cookies

Topping:
1 1/2 TB Demerara Sugar; I usually use "Sugar in the Raw" for this but any large crystal'ed sugar will do.
1/8 tsp Lemon Oil (You can try to use 1/4 tsp Lemon Zest, but I find that it burns in the oven)

Toss these together in a small bowl, cover with plastic and set aside to meld.


Cookies:
2 cups AP Flour
1/2 tsp Baking Soda (This will help control spread and keep the cookies from being too soft)
1/2 tsp Kosher Salt
3/4 cup butter; softened
1 cup Light Brown Sugar
1/2 cup Granulated Sugar
1 Large Egg
1 Large Egg Yolk
Zest of 1/2 Lemon
1/2 tsp Lemon Oil or increase the Lemon Zest to a whole lemon
1 Vanilla Bean Scraped or 1 TB Vanilla Extract
10 oz Macadamia Nuts; Rough chopped
10 oz White "Chocolate" Chips (make sure they contain Cocoa Butter and Not Palm Oils)

Preheat the oven to 325 degrees.
In a medium bowl, whisk together, the flour, baking soda, and salt; set aside.

Beat softened butter until slightly fluffy, add Brown Sugar and Granulated sugar, continue beating until homogeneous

Add egg and egg yolk, mixing well, to combine.

In a small bowl, combine lemon oil, lemon zest and vanilla bean caviar (or Extract).

Add to the batter, mixing well to ensure even dispersion.

Add the flour 1/4 cup at a time, with the mixer on low, beating until everything is thoroughly mixed.

Remove bowl from mixer and add the Macadamia nuts and White "Chocolate" Chips

Fold them in by hand.

Line 2 pans with Parchment and drop spoonfuls onto lined baking sheet.

Press down lightly, just enough to level them slightly then sprinkle with Lemon Infused Demerara sugar.

Bake for 13-14 minutes or until the edges look golden brown.
Allow cookies to cool on sheet for 10 minutes before moving to a cooling rack to cool completely.

Your gonna have about 3 dozen cookies.

Oh, in case your wondering what I did with the scrapped Vanilla Bean pod, I wrapped it tightly and placed it in the refrigerator, because I am going to use it for some hot cocoa later.


Mangia!!
~~