Showing posts with label macadamia nuts. Show all posts
Showing posts with label macadamia nuts. Show all posts

Tuesday, February 16, 2016

Pineapple Macadamia Nut Shortbread #CreativeCookieExchange

Candied pineapple and macadamia nuts bring a little tropical flair to traditional, rich buttery shortbread.

This month my Creative Cookie Exchange friends are channeling the tropics to bring you cookies that remind us of sun and surf and swaying palms trees. And I got to reminiscing about a long ago holiday to Hawaii.

When I was still in school and my father moved to southeast Asia, he used to book tickets for my sisters and me to visit him from Texas. No one flew that far in one go at the time so there were several stops. Often one of the layovers was in Hawaii so we’d break up the trip by staying a few days on Waikiki. One year I was going to be traveling on my own so I twisted a friend’s arm (hard task, right?) to come with me. Her father worked for Delta so her ticket was heavily discounted and since Daddy was already paying for the hotel room, all she needed was spending money. We had the best time, hanging out on the beach and soaking up the sun together.

I’ll tell you honestly that while we ate our share of pineapple there, both at breakfast time and perched on tropical cocktails, I don’t recall trying a macadamia nut until years later. Nevertheless both pineapples and macadamias have become synonymous with Hawaii. And they go beautifully together in buttery shortbread.

Adapted from Recipe.com

Ingredients
2 1/2 cups or 315g all-purpose flour
1/3 cup packed or 65g brown sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup or 227g cold butter
1/4 cup finely chopped or 30g macadamia nuts
1/4 cup finely chopped or 50g candied pineapple

Method
Preheat your oven to 325°F or 163°C and prepare a 8 x 8 in or 20 x 20cm pan by lining it completely with baking parchment. I also use a little non-stick spray just to help it stay in place.

Chop your pineapple and nuts into small pieces.



In a large mixing bowl, combine your flour, brown sugar and salt.

Cut the cold butter into pieces and add them to the mixing bowl. Use a pastry blender to cut in the butter, until the mixture resembles fine crumbs.



Stir in the chopped candied pineapple and nuts. Use your fingers to break up the bits of pineapple so they aren’t all stuck together.



Pour the mixture into your prepared pan and level it out with a spatula or spoon.

Use your hands to press and flatten the mixture as thin as you can manage.



Use a sharp knife to score the top of the shortbread. If it crumbles as you try to score it, press it down again, even more firmly. You can poke 'em with a fork if you want to also. That seems traditional for shortbread.



Bake in your preheated oven for about 18-22 minutes or until the edges are starting to turn golden.

Remove from the oven and leave to cool in the pan for just a few minutes on a wire rack. While the it's still quite warm, use the sharp knife to cut right through the shortbread where you scored it.

Allow to cool completely before removing the shortbread cookies from the pan.

These are melt in your mouth good.


Enjoy!

Check out all the other tropical cookies from my fellow Creative Cookie Exchange bakers this month:


Creative Cookie Exchange is hosted by Laura of The Spiced Life, this month with technical assistance from Renee of Magnolia Days. We get together once a month to bake cookies with a common theme or ingredient so Creative Cookie Exchange is a great resource for cookie recipes. Be sure to check out our Pinterest Board and our monthly posts at The Spiced Life). We post the first Tuesday after the 15th of each month!

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Tuesday, September 22, 2015

Hawaiian Layer Bars #CreativeCookieExchange



A tropic twist of the classic layer bar, these chewy cookies are made with macadamia nuts, flaked coconut, dried pineapple and banana chips, baked on a crispy rough puff pastry base.

First, a confession: A couple of months back, when I read the theme for this month’s Creative Cookie Exchange – Layered Cookie Bars – I didn’t have a clue of what that meant. A quick search revealed deliciousness that I had clearly been missing all these years. Seven-layer bars, 10-layer bars, million layer bars! (That last one was an exaggeration, by the way.) They reminded me very much of Uncle Hector’s 100 Cookies with all the ingredient variations, but baked in layers instead of mixed together in a cookie dough. The bases varied widely as well: some crumb, some pastry, some cookie dough crusts.

I went to my baking cupboard and had a look through my potential ingredients. I have airtight plastic containers full of a variety of chips, dried fruits and nuts, all kinds and colors of chocolate and candies. I considered how many layers I could put together and it would have been impressive, although possibly still not one million. Instead, I decided to choose a theme, something tropical to celebrate the start of school and the end of summer holidays. And these Hawaiian layer bars were the result.

Ingredients
Rough puff pastry from this recipe or your own favorite
5 oz or 145g macadamia nuts
3 1/2 oz or 100g dried pineapple
3 1/2 oz or 100g sweetened flake coconut
3 1/2 oz or 100g sweetened banana chips
1 can (14 oz or 395g) sweetened condensed milk (not evaporated)

Method
Preheat your oven to 400°F or 200°C and prepare your 8x12in or 20x30cm pan by lining it with baking parchment.

Roll the pastry dough out as thin as you can.



Take your fitted parchment back out of the pan and transfer the pastry to the center of the parchment. Trim edges straight with a sharp knife. This helps puffing.



Fit the parchment with pastry back in the pan. Dock the base thoroughly with the tines of a fork.



Bake in your preheated oven for 10 minutes.

Remove the pan from the oven. The rough puff will have puffed somewhat in the middle so just use your fork to repeat the docking and it will deflate.

Reduce oven temperature to 350°F or 180°C.

Sprinkle on the layers. I wanted to see a little of everything on the top so I did layers but saved a little of each of the bottom layers to sprinkle again on the top.



Pour in the condensed milk, making sure to get some it all over and even into the sides and corners.



Bake again till golden, perhaps 20-25 minutes.



Enjoy!


I can't even start to tell you how chewy and delicious these were, a perfect blend on the crusty golden crust.






Check out all the lovely layered cookie bars we have for you this month! Many thanks to our organizer, Laura of The Spiced Life.





The Creative Cookie Exchange gets together once a month on the second Tuesday after the 15th to bake cookies with a common theme or ingredient. If you are a food blogger who would like to join us, please send Laura an email: TheSpiceLife(at)gmail(dot)com.

You can also just use us as a great resource for cookie recipes - be sure to check out our Pinterest Board and our monthly posts (you can find all of them at The Spiced Life).


For lagniappe - in southern Louisiana where I come from this means something extra, a little treat that's thrown in at the end.

Here's what to do with the rough puff scraps you cut off when making the layered cookie bars.



Cut the dough in short pieces and roll in cinnamon sugar. Lay out on a cookie sheet covered with parchment.





Bake with the base of the layer cookies above in your 400°F or 200°C oven.



Again, enjoy!