Gone a Little Nutty: Honey-Sesame-Covered Cashews

 This past Christmas, The Bat received a 1-lb bag of delightful Trader Joe's cashew treats as a gift, from one of our extended family members. Within 48 hours of her having opened them, they had vanished. I got none of them. The Bat got some of them. Pop liked them. A. Lot.

Knowing how difficult it is to purchase said items locally (the nearest Trader Joe's is, IIRC, roughly 190 miles from our front door), I did a little research, and found a couple of recipes I could combine to make my own version. They're fairly simple, and not too sweet.

You'll need a 2-quart saucepan, a 1-gallon zipper bag, non-stick parchment or foil, and a jelly roll pan (sided sheet pan) at least 9x14 inches. You'll also need both the stovetop and the oven, plus a cooling rack.

The ingredients list is also simple.

Honey-Sesame-Covered Cashews

ingredients:

3/4 cup sesame seeds without hulls

2 teaspoons granulated sugar

pinch salt

2 cups unsalted cashews

1 Tablespoon honey

1 tablespoon unsalted butter

directions:

Preheat oven to 250º F

Combine sesame seeds, sugar, and salt in zipper bag, shake well. Fold opening down to make a wide, stable opening. Set aside.

Line your jelly roll pan with non-stick parchment or nonstick foil. Spread your cashews out on it, and place on center rack of warm oven.

On medium-high heat, melt butter and honey together, and bring to a boil for 2 minutes, stirring constantly. Remove from heat. Moving quickly, remove cashews from oven, add to honey/butter mix in pan, stir until completely covered. Pour hot-ish mixture into bag of sesame seeds. Seal bag and shake gently but well, aiming for maximum coverage.

Pour contents back onto lined jelly roll pan, spreading it out so very few – if any – pieces are touching. Return to oven, bake for 10 to 12 minutes.

Allow to cool completely, in pan on rack, before handling them. 

Store in an airtight container.* 

*I'm led to believe these will last for several weeks in a decent container, but my evidence indicates they evaporate into thin air fairly swiftly.

Mini-Margarita Cheesecakey Bites

Yesterday was haircut day. In this neighborhood, the genius who does the work on The Bat's and my challenging mops gets not only cash and hugs, but something a little decadent from the kitchen. Sometimes it's chocolate, sometimes it's liquor...this time, it's tequila (cue the Peewee Herman dance, and tell 'em Large Marge sent you).

Not only is it tequila, it's cheesecakes. Bite-sized. No-bake. So none of the liquor bakes out. And you can easily lose track of how much you've had.

That's not a bug, it's a feature.

Another feature is, it's really a quick-and-easy process. Once I assembled the ingredients, and the cream cheese was allowed to soften to room temperature, the whole thing took only 20 minutes for me to prepare. It makes at least 7 dozen (if you have that many good, bowl-shaped tortilla scoops. Otherwise, it makes as many as you can get, plus a small bowl full of tasty, tangy dip).

There's another plus to this: the alcohol is totally optional (unless it's going to the salon)!

It's great for parties, either way, so if you have a Spring Break event, or you're thinking all the way ahead to Cinco de Mayo or graduation day, or somebody's wedding, you can make a gazillion of these in short order, either teetotalling or liquored up, and people will go bonkers.

How to drink your Margaritas without looking like you're drinking…

Mini-Margarita Cheesecakey Bites

Ingredients:

1 (10 ounce) bag tortilla "scoops" bowl-shaped chips

1 (8 ounce) packet cream cheese
1 (14 ounce) can sweetened condensed milk
1/4 cup tequila (optional)
1/8 cup orange liqueur (optional)
1 (6 ounce) can* frozen limeade concentrate - DO NOT THAW!

Directions: 

Make sure you have room in your refrigerator.  

Set up trays of tortilla chip bowls: (I used three 12-inch pizza pans with low rims to hold them in place as I worked). Select at least 80 chips from bag, based on their shape - good, unbroken, with high sides and slightly flattened bottoms so they will hold the filling and still stand alone on a plate.

In the bowl of a stand mixer, beat cream cheese until it is fluffy. Add in condensed milk, beat until smooth, then mix in tequila, orange liqueur, and frozen limeade concentrate. Mix well.

Using a 2-teaspoon-sized cookie scoop like this one, or a piping bag with no special tip, fill each tortilla scoop with the batter. When each tray is completed, cover lightly with plastic and put it in the refrigerator. Allow to chill at least two hours, until mostly firm (they do not freeze very well, I'm sorry to say).

Serve topped with whipped cream. You may choose to go the lazy way & get pre-fab stuff, like the canned whipped cream, or the frozen non-dairy whipped topping, or you can, a few minutes before you're ready to serve, make some lime-whipped cream:

Special whipped cream topping:

1 pint whipping cream

2 teaspoons lime juice

1 Tablespoon ultrafine granulated sugar*

In a chilled bowl, beat whipping cream and lime juice on high until soft peaks begin to form. Sprinkle sugar into cream, continuing to beat until light and fluffy and stiff peaks begin to form - but be careful! You want to stop before it turns to butter! 

Allow your guests to apply their whipped cream on their own – from the can or with a teaspoon – then just sit back and enjoy the accolades.

*I ended up buying a 12-ounce can of limeade concentrate (that's all they had at Aldi), used half the can in the cheesecake filling, then allowed the remaining concentrate to thaw, substituted 2 Tablespoons of that for the lime juice and sugar, and made a quart of limeade, as well, to carry with me as a drink mixer for the afternoon/evening crowd.