Almost Ruth’s Cashew Supremes

© 2019 MarcaRelli

Remember Archway holiday cookies? Those white powder puff Pfeffernusse. Their Oatmeal Cookies with icing.  And of course the ever sublime Ruth’s Cashew Supremes.

Archway was there. Then it was wasn’t. Then it was there again…  Kinda like Twinkies. Now the brand appears to be a shell of its former self. You can still find small anemic racks of Archway cookies in supermarkets around the holidays but their offerings are limited to a few skinny 6 ounce varieties selling at around four dollars a pop – that’s about $10.50 a pound

So I guess we’re just going to have to make them ourselves.

The subject of this recipe, Ruth’s Cashew Supremes, was a holiday favorite here in the stew for many years. Over time Archway kept renaming our little delights, first to Ruth’s Cashew Nougats, then eventually poor old Ruth was kicked out altogether leaving the cookie with the bland impersonal moniker – Cashew Nougat. Boring!! I miss Ruth.*

These are extremely easy to make and bake off in only 20 minutes.  

Need This
2 cups all purpose flour
1 cup of corn oil
2 teaspoons of vanilla extract (imitation is fine)
3/4 teaspoon of salt
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1 – 8 ounce can of salted cashews (halves and pieces)
Confectioners sugar (for dusting)

Do This
Heat your over to 325 F.

Mix together the corn oil, sugar and vanilla.  Not all of the sugar will dissolve in the oil – but that’s okay.

Course chop the cashew pieces.

Add the flour, salt, and cashews to the oil mixture.

Mix well until a soft dough begins to form.  It should be somewhat like the consistency of lumpy clay.

Get out a large cookie sheet.

Using a cookie dropper (or a tablespoon) scoop out about 1 tablespoon of batter onto a cookie sheet, forming dough balls approximately 1/2 inch in diameter. Continue doing this until all the batter is used up.

You should end up with about 30 cookie mounds.

Shove the cookie sheet into the oven (middle rack) and bake for exactly 20 minutes (not a minute more as you do not want to brown them).

Remove the cookies from the oven and let cool completely (at least 1 hour).

Dust a generous amount of  powdered sugar over the cookies.

Serve with hot tea.

Makes approximately 30 – 1/2 inch cookies.

My cost approx. $5.75 total – about 19 cents per cookie.

* Named after Ruth Swanson, wife of Harold Swanson and co-founder (along with Harold)
  of what would eventually be known as Archway Cookies, circa 1954.  GMN