A Tale of Two Cookies
…we are more alike than we are different!
This is a tale of WAY more than two cookies. In fact I am 100% confident that many of you have looked at my cookie picture and thought “Oh I make that cookie!…it’s a Russian Tea Cake, a Mexican Wedding Cookie, a Walnut Ball, a Snowball, a Melting Hawaiian Moment, an Italian Hazelnut Ball” …and the list goes on! The nut ball cookies have a version in so many cultures…hence my comment that we are more alike than different. Something we really need to pay attention to in our treatment of one another right now. But I digress… My cookie recipe is called a Nuremberg Nut Puff because that is what my teacher in High School called them. Nuremberg being a city in Germany. So from Mexico to Italy to Russia to Hawaii to Germany to infinity and beyond this cookie has a version. I have been making these cookies for 50 years. The recipe originated from a class or group at Will C. Crawford High School in the 1970’s and I have never found a recipe that tastes better than the Nuremberg Nut Puff. I do not exaggerate when I say that any one who has ever had one of my cookies has said it is the BEST Nut Ball they have ever tasted. I have always made this cookie with Pecans. They are a frequent request from my family because they are so good and my sister-in-law Windy can’t wait until Christmas and her Birthday so that she can have these cookies. As a result I use a batch of these cookies as bribery or thanks for Windy’s magical gardening skills in my backyard. She is a genius in the garden!
Windy asked that I include the Nuremberg Nut Puff cookie in my BLOG because she absolutely LOVES them. I was preparing to BLOG about the NNP (Nuremberg Nut Puff) but was still deeply entrenched in my bread escapades (delivering home made bread to neighbors so I don’t eat it all myself) and just had not gotten around to it. One of my bread gifts went to my neighbors and friends Rita and Dan. Dan had expressed interest in making sourdough. I can never resist the opportunity to get someone hooked on making bread and gifted Rita and Dan with Sourdough Starter, packets of yeast and a loaf of bread. A day or two later Rita and Dan were at my door with THE MOST DELICIOUS GOOEY CINNAMON ROLLS I have ever tasted and a can of Macadamia Nuts from their Native Hawaii. I mentioned at the time that I had several amazing recipes using Macadamia Nuts and that I would have to find those recipes because I love a cookie with Macadamia Nuts in them. At this juncture Rita mentioned that she made a cookie using Macadamia Nuts called a Melting Hawaiian Moment…a snow ball shaped cookie. What a surprise! I was just getting ready to put my recipe up for Nuremberg Nut Puffs and got this crazy idea that it would be really cool to make both versions for my BLOG. Rita graciously sent me her recipe for Hawaiian Melting Moments. The recipe she sent me having won the 1997 Local and Ethnic Food Show in Hawaii taking Top of Show by Jaclyn Nagano. This story took a couple of turns as I was preparing to do my BLOG. First I ran to Costco and bought a $19.99 can of dry roasted Macadamia Nuts with Sea Salt only to find out that I needed “unsalted” nuts to make the cookie. So I searched on Amazon to find “unsalted” Macadamia Nuts. I planned out a day to make both recipes of Nut Balls. The Nuremberg and the Hawaiian Melting Moments. I got all the butter out to soften, made the Hawaiian Melting Moments first and then discovered I did not have ANY pecans. So the day turned out to be a bust. I finished the Hawaiian Melting Moments and sent some to Rita and Dan with a promise to send them some NNP’s so they could compare at a future date. BUT I still hadn’t prepared for my BLOG. I needed to make both recipes of the cookie and I was already $36 into Macadamia Nuts…with one large can that were salted. Time for some reflection. I liked the Hawaiian Melting Moments. They were a delicate cookie because they were made with Cake Flour. The recipe outside of the Cake Flour and the quantity of nuts was very similar to the NNP. I made a decision. I was going to just make the NNP with Pecans and then make an identical version of it using my salted Macadamia Nuts and “voila” it was perfection. I sent a plate of the NNP and the newly named “Hawaiian Nut Puffs” over to Rita and Dan’s and guess what…they liked the new version better. The moral of this story is the NNP Recipe is epic and if you don’t like Pecans than substitute your favorite nut in place of the pecans and you will likely get an amazing result. When you jump to recipe you will be directed to the Nuremberg Nut Puff Recipe BUT in the Recipe Section is the Hawaiian Melting Moment Recipe and the Hawaiian Nut Puff Recipe (my adaptation). If you like a more “cake like” cookie I recommend you try to Hawaiian Melting Moment. If you like a more savory cookie go with the HNP (Hawaiian Nut Puff). Below are some tips for a great outcome:
When chopping your nuts do NOT pulverize them into powder. The cookies are so much more delicious if some bigger chunks of nuts are in them. NOT too big mind you!
Don’t make these cookies too large. I use the smallest cookie scoop and make the cookies slightly larger than a large jawbreaker.
Bake the cookies until lightly browned. Check the bottoms to ensure they are golden brown and that the cookies are light brown all around. This adds a more roasted nut flavor to this cookie.
Pay attention to the cooking times on the recipe but remember every oven is different and adjust based on the color of the baked cookie and not the time listed. For example on the Hawaiian Melting Moments I had to cook them almost 10 minutes longer than the recipe called for. There are likely a number of reasons for this. The size of the actual cookie and the accuracy of your oven.
I hope you enjoy these cookies. Mangia!
