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Trouble Cookies

4.6

(18)

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Photographs by Jenny Huang, food styling by Sue Li, prop styling by Sophie Strangio

“Once you eat one, you just can’t stop,” says Roxana Jullapat in her cookbook Mother Grains (out April 2021). Hence how these cashew-and-toffee-loaded cookies got their name. Naturally sweet sorghum flour becomes caramelly when combined with butter and brown sugar. Look for whole-grain unbleached organic sorghum flour (Bob’s Red Mill makes one), which has more flavor (and fiber) than the refined version. Can’t find sorghum flour? Play around with any heirloom wheat flour in its place—like spelt, buckwheat, rye, or einkorn—each will bring its own special something.

Recipe information

  • Yield

    Makes 16

Ingredients

¼

cup plus 2 Tbsp. (60 g) raw cashews

½

cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, room temperature

¾

cup (packed) plus 2 Tbsp. (175 g) dark brown sugar

1

large egg

1

tsp. vanilla extract

½

cup plus 2 Tbsp. (80 g) sorghum flour

½

cup plus 2 Tbsp. (78 g) all-purpose flour

1

tsp. baking soda

½

tsp. baking powder

¼

tsp. kosher salt

¾

cup (70 g) unsweetened shredded coconut, plus more for serving

½

cup (90 g) English toffee chips (such as Heath Bits O’ Brickle)

Preparation

  1. Step 1

    Place a rack in middle of oven; preheat to 350°. Toast cashews on a rimmed baking sheet, tossing halfway through, until golden, 8–10 minutes. Let cool before chopping into pea-size pieces.

    Step 2

    Beat butter and brown sugar in the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment on medium speed until light and fluffy, about 5 minutes. Add egg and vanilla and beat 1 minute. Add sorghum flour, all-purpose flour, baking soda, baking powder, and salt and beat just until combined. Add cashews, coconut, and toffee. Mix just until combined. The dough will be very soft at this point. Wrap tightly and chill at least 30 minutes or up to 2 days (if chilling for more than 30 minutes, transfer to a sheet of parchment paper or plastic wrap, flatten into a disk, and wrap tightly to prevent drying).

    Step 3

    Place racks in upper and lower thirds of oven; preheat to 375°. Divide dough into 16 equal portions (about 1½ oz.; 45 g each). Working quickly so that the dough doesn’t warm up, roll each portion into a ball with your hands. Divide cookies between 2 parchment-lined baking sheets, spacing at least 3" apart. Press gently with palm of your hand to flatten and decorate with a sprinkle of shredded coconut.

    Step 4

    Bake cookies, rotating baking sheets top to bottom and front to back halfway through, until edges are brown but centers are still a little gooey, 12–14 minutes. Let cookies cool on baking sheets before serving.

    Do ahead: Dough can be formed into balls 2 weeks ahead; freeze on a baking sheet until solid. Transfer to an airtight container or freezer bags and keep frozen. Bake from frozen; cookies may take a few minutes longer to bake. Cookies can be baked 2 days ahead; store airtight at room temperature.

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Reprinted from Mother Grains: Recipes for the Grain Revolution. Copyright © 2021 by Roxana Jullapat. With permission of the publisher, W.W. Norton & Company, Inc. All rights reserved.

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Reviews (18)

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  • Just not to my taste. Too greasy. I think the soft flours don't have enough strength to absorb all the fat.

    • Anonymous

    • Daly City, CA

    • 6/4/2022

  • Given all that I'm going to say below, these were pretty great. I think I still need to work on them a bit to make them amazing. I'm still working on getting these right and I'm not sure if it is an altitude thing but both cookie recipes I've made from BA have needed the temperature adjusted 30-50F lower. No other recipes have needed that. I cooked these @350F for 13min and they were a bit overdone. I am going to try 325F for 14min next. I'm in Colorado @ 5,000 ft so I'm also going to check and see what adjustments are normal at altitude for cookies for the next batch because these are worth a few attempts :)

    • Aaron Todd

    • Fort Collins, CO

    • 9/27/2021

  • What a wonderful subtly sweet, buttery, salty cookie with just the right amount of crisp and chew! I followed the recipe exactly because that's just me, (the first time I try a recipe) if I am able to gather all the ingredients. I don't think I'd change a thing.

    • Emily M.

    • Niskayuna, New York

    • 4/30/2021

  • FABULOUS!!

    • Anonymous

    • Seattle

    • 3/9/2021

  • These are DELICIOUS! And I didn't have toffee chips and was too lazy to make them, so I used chocolate chips instead. So so good- the texture and flavor was to die for.

    • Kat H

    • Chicago, IL

    • 3/7/2021

  • These are delicious cookies. Only change I made was putting more Heath Bar crumbles on top rather than coconut. My husband really likes them so I have made them at least 4 times. However, they tend to flatten out when cooking. I'd love to know the secret to keeping them from doing that. I've tried everything and measured ingredients by grams.

    • Sherman

    • Seattle, WA

    • 2/21/2021

  • Any suggestions for toffee replacement? Could you just use chocolate chips?

    • Cal

    • 2/3/2021