I’ve made these cookies a couple of times. The batch I made yesterday included a lot more butter (1 stick more) than usual, but I think that it worked well and I wanted to share.

Ingredients:

1/4 cup powdered sugar

2 1/2 sticks (20 Tablespoons) softened butter

1 1/2 Tablespoons sugar

1/4 teaspoon salt

1 1/4 cups flour

1/4 cup corn starch

2 teaspoons curry powder

1 cup roughly chopped cashews (unsalted, raw is preferred)

Preheat the oven to 300. Mix the powdered sugar, butter, sugar and salt until the mixture is creamed and fluffy. Sift in the flour, corn starch and curry powder. Knead together in the bowl until a ball of dough forms. FYI, this is going to be a very sticky dough. If the dough is dry, add a couple of drops of water until all of the dry mixture is incorporated. Add in the chopped cashews and mix together (I put whole, raw, unsalted cashews in a lightly sealed bag and use a rolling pin to get it to be a rough chop). Place by spoonfuls onto a cookie sheet (I line mine with parchment paper).

When they are all on the cookie sheet, you can form them or make them into shapes if you would like. Bake for approximately 45-50 minutes, rotating once halfway through.

There should be a nice brown coating along the bottom edges of the cookies.

This cookie is very rich and flavorful. You have the rich buttery flavor, the subtle curry flavor, and the smooth flavor of the cashews, with a little bit of a crunch. The cookies will break apart easily, but they almost melt in your mouth. Even though this has 2 teaspoons of curry powder, it’s not an overbearing flavor. This is a sweet cookie with hints of savory. Since it breaks apart, the cashews help hold it together, and they also add a nice combination of flavor with the curry.

I’ve made the South American version of Alfajores before, and the corn starch and flour combination give those cookies their texture. That is the reason I wanted to have some corn starch in these cookies. If you would prefer to do without, just make sure to adjust the recipe and add an additional 1/4 cup flour instead of the corn starch.

I had two bonuses with this batch. The first was the parchment paper after the cookies were removed. There were little brown butter crumbs which had an extra layer of flavor. The other bonus was the aroma. I enjoy the smell of curry, and it was all over the house. And when you are getting ready to bite into these cookies, the slight smell of curry goes into the nose and invites an extra layer of sensory enjoyment. It’s easy to stay positive when eating these!