dreaming@echonyc.com

these beauties come from martha stewart's jaw-dropping holiday cookie magazine — not only is it bursting with dozens of recipes i wish i had time to try, it's gorgeous to look at. its finest asset is its two indexes, one sorted by cookie category and one alphabetical, both of which feature pictures of the cookies so you can decide at a glance which look most appetizing.

these cookies. oh, these cookies. they're made by pulverizing roasted, salted cashews with oil, then doing the whole butter/sugar/flour thing, mixing in some additional chopped nuts, and baking. you flatten the cookies halfway through their bake time, and finally drizzle the cooled cookies with a mixture of melted caramels and cream.

yum.

i was initially worried that they'd taste like nothing more than glorified peanut butter cookies, but they're unspeakably delicious.

wait a minute, so are peanut butter cookies. but you get the idea, anyway.

i didn't do a very good job with my drizzle. the recipe called for letting the caramel cool after melting, and i let it cool too long. i was going for a thin stripe like in martha's picture; while my results aren't as pretty, they might taste even richer with the extra payload of goo. the only drawback is that the caramel is fairly soft even after it sets. to store the cookies, i froze them on cookie sheets to harden the caramel, then packed them between layers of parchment. as i packed, i worked in the garage where it was cold, hence the dark green hood of our car visible in the photo.

never let it be said that i am not a world-class baker with access to state-of-the-art facilities and technology.