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Method:

1. Toast them on a dry pan over medium heat until they are fragrant, about 5 minutes or so. Alternatively, you can roast them dry in the oven at 350 F (180 C) for 10 minutes, stirring them halfway. Let the nuts cool down completely.
2. Finely chop the nuts and set aside. From all the nuts that I’ve tried so far: cashews, pecans, hazelnuts, and almonds, the kids like cashews and pecans version the best.

Dough Preparation

1. Preheat your oven to 300F (180 C) for conventional oven, 280 F (140 C) for convection oven. Line a baking sheet with a parchment paper
2. Cream butter and icing sugar at low speed using a paddle attachement. You can also just manually beat with spatula without using the machine
3. Add egg yolks one by one.
4. Add finely chopped nuts, cornstarch, and milk powder and beat for a few second until just combined.
5. Add salt and gradually add in the all-purpose flour in 3 batches
6. Don’t overwork the dough too much, just mix until it is barely combined.
7. Scrape the sides of the bowl to gather the dough and use your hands to form into a non-sticky dough. If it’s very sticky, add a bit more flour, one tablespoon at a time.

To form shape using cookie cutter:

1. Put the dough in between two cling wrap (parchment paper works too)
2. Roll the dough out into about 1/2-inch (about 1.2 cm) in thickness and use the cookie cutter to cut out the shape.
3. Dip the cutter in a flour to prevent sticking. Use a cookie cutter to cut out the dough
4. Try to cut as closely as possible to prevent too many times I need to re-roll the dough to cut more dough out later
5. Gently push the dough out and place them on a baking sheet. They don’t spread a whole lot.

To chill or not to chill the shaped dough:

1. I don’t have to chill the dough before baking. I suggest trying to bake 3-4 cookies and see how they behave. If they spread too much, I recommend chilling the dough for 30 minutes in the freezer before baking.

Baking:

1. Bake one tray of cookie at a time for the best result. Place the baking sheet, 3rd rack from the top and bake for 20-23 minutes or until they are lightly golden brown on the bottom and the top are still pretty pale in color. Let them rest for about 2-3 minutes.
2. Prepare a container with some icing sugar. Place 4-5 warm cookies in the sugar and gently shake to coat them. Place them on a cooling rack. Repeat with the rest
3. Let them cool down completely. Then you can go for a second round of coating to make sure they live up to their snow-white appearance, but if you don’t want them to be too sweet, you can skip the second coating.

Storage:

1. They can be kept in an air-tight container for 1 week and beyond if stored in cool dry place