Walnut buttons

For every enormous cookie I endorse, I equally love handfuls of these teeny, tasty drops of cookie. I bask in the pious glow of dainty gluttony under the ‘M&M delusion’ that a handful of many is better for me than a large single portion. But let’s not waste time on cookie economics. I like to make these with any nut but, if starting from scratch, walnuts are my first nut of call. Get the very best butter, preferably cultured, for these.

Ingredients

• 210 g (7½ oz) raw walnuts
• 195 g (6¾ oz) plain (all-purpose) flour (10% protein)
• 180 g (6½ oz) unsalted butter, cold (5°C/41°F)
• 90 g (3¼ oz) demerara sugar or raw sugar
• ½ tsp (3 g) fine sea salt
• cooking oil spray

Cooling time: 20 minutes.

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 140°C (275°F). Toast the walnuts on a baking tray for 25 minutes in the pre-heated oven until pale gold inside (cut one open to check). Tip into a bowl and cool quickly in the fridge for 20 minutes.
2. Hold back 40 g (1½ oz) of the toasted walnuts and whiz the rest with the flour in a food processor until the nuts are the size of panko breadcrumbs.
3. Make the dough: Beat the butter, sugar and salt in a stand mixer with the paddle attachment on medium–low speed. Beat until the mix is a dense, creamy paste (not fluffy) and a few shades paler, approximately 8 minutes, stopping the mixer and scraping the side of the bowl a few times throughout.
4. Reduce to low speed and tip in the flour/nut mix, mixing until thoroughly incorporated. Take the bowl off the stand mixer and give the dough a thorough and final mix with a stiff spatula so no buttery streaks remain (these can make misshapen cookies).
5. Line two shallow baking trays with cooking oil spray and baking paper. Weigh 10 g (¼ oz) portions of the dough (1 heaped teaspoon worth) and roll into sweet li’l balls. Place on the tray, quite close as they don’t spread. Break the reserved toasted walnuts into pinky fingernail–sized pieces and lightly press one piece into the top of each cookie.
6. Bake for 35 minutes until the bases are light brown. A little cookie film may cling to your fingers when they are hot, but this will dissipate as they cool. Cool before serving (see Note).

Notes

• Store for up to 2 weeks airtight at room temperature. Refresh for 10 minutes at the bake temperature before serving. The raw dough can be chilled for 1 month or frozen for 3.
• All other nuts work in these. Always toast and cool first.
• You can also dredge the lukewarm cookies in sifted icing (confectioners’) sugar.

This is an edited extract from Sweet Heart by Natalie Paull (Murdoch Books, $49.99). Photography by Rochelle Eagle.