These peanut butter cookies are great!

Today's cookies are loved by every mouth they meet.* They're rich, chewy, dense...and often confused for peanut butter cookies.

Not that peanut butter cookies are lacking in any way. Whether they're rolled in sugar or criss-crossed with a fork, I'm in love. PBC's are in vogue everywhere, from church dinners to the secret judge's lounge at forensics's tournaments. (What? You didn't know there was a tricked-out lounge just for the judges? You need to volunteer for more tournaments.)

The Marathana company already makes my number-one, super-favorite, dance-in-your-pants-good peanut butter. Paying $4.75 for a jar of is the least I can do to show my love and devotion for the no-stir crunchy peanut butter. Love at first spoonful.

However, to celebrate Easter, I thought I'd introduce you to the PBC's older, more refined sister, the Cash Mac Cookie. Cashews and macadamia nuts combine to make these in crispy-crunchy disks, which I usually dust with turbinado sugar or top with a cashew.

like Edward in Twilight, they sparkle

Like a cognac that's reserved only for the most special of occasions, Marathana also makes a decadent blend called Cashew-macadamia Butter. It combines a cashew's sweetness with a macadamia's richness, and it. is. good. The hardest part of loving this nut butter is deciding what to call it.

Sure, the name "Cashew-macadamia-nut-butter" gums up one's tongue. But shorter variants don't stack up: "Cash-mac-mash? Cash-mac-butt? Macadamia-cash-butter? Maca-cashew-spread!?!" Or, how about something in the middle? cash-mac-butter. Short, snappy, and informal. It's what I would call a friend, if I had a friend made of a pureed cashews and macadamia nuts.

If you aren't near a store that sells cash-mac butter, you could puree a 1/4 cup each of cashews and macadamia nuts to achieve a similar product.

Cashew macadamia nut butter cookies

• 1/2 cup butter, softened
• 1/2 cup cash-mac butter
  
• 1/2 cup cane sugar, plus a little extra for dusting
  
• 1/2 cup packed brown sugar
• 1/2 tsp. baking soda
• 1/2 tsp. baking powder
• 1 egg
• 1/2 tsp. vanilla
• 1 cup all-purpose flour
• 1/4 whole wheat flour
• 2 dozen salted cashews, for decoration

Preheat your oven to 375 degrees Fahrenheit. Beat the butter and cash-mac butter together until they're creamy and dreamy. Mix in the sugars, plus the baking powder and soda. Scrape the sides of the bowl and make sure the rising agents are fully incorporated. Beat the egg and vanilla, and then stir in as much of the flour as you can with a wooden spoon.

The cash-mac butter is runnier than its peanut counterpart, so you may need to add an extra spoonful of flour to bring the batter up to cookie consistency. If that doesn't do the trick, refrigerate the dough for a few minutes until it's easy to handle.

Shape the dough into small spheres and place two inches apart on an ungreased cookie sheet. I used a tablespoon to measure and shape the cookies. Flatten the dough by criss-crossing them with the tines of a fork. I like to dip the fork into a small bowl of sugar before the criss-cross action, to keep the dough from sticking to the fork. Then, press a cashew into the center of each cookie. Bake the cookies for 7-9 minutes, or until the bottoms are lightly browned. Cool the cash-mac goodies on a wire rack and then eat! immediately!


*One summer, a friend invited me to his yearly soiree. My husband and I arrived, daintily attired, around 10 pm with these cookies in tow. His wife, the hostess, greeted me at the door with a cold "Do I know you?" She even physically placed herself between me and the living room. I put on my brightest, I'm-not-hitting-on-your-husband smile and said, "No! I'm Kate, this is my husband, and I brought cookies!" After taking a whiff of the golden discs, she softened and let us in. Later, I overheard another party-goer exclaim, "Man, these peanut butter cookies are great!" Now that is a powerful cookie.