These vegan pistachio cardamom shortbread cookies taste just like nankhatai biscuits. They are crumbly textured and crispy and delicious and they couldn't be easier to make.
There are some food flavors that stay with us all our lives, and haunt us when we haven't met them in a while. The flavor of these Crumbly vegan Pistachio-Cardamom Shortbread cookies is, for my hubby Desi, something like that.
Growing up in India, one of the fanciest cookies you could buy were Nankhatai, a shortbread-textured cookie with an incredibly soft, melt-in-the-mouth texture and hints of cardamom and nuts (see my vegan nankhatai recipe). I loved these cookies, as did Desi who has a sweet tooth to beat all others.
For days now, he had been asking me to make him a cookie flavored with cardamom and pistachios, but I held back. While I have, in my pre-vegan days, made Nankhatai using ghee, I was not sure how it would turn out with vegan ingredients.
Yesterday, I decided to throw my fear to the winds. And these cookies were perfect. The pistachio gives these cookies a lovely, barely-green color and the flavor is to die for.
Desi loved them, but I too couldn't keep my hand out of the cookie jar!
Looking for more vegan cookie recipes?
- Vegan Almond Flour Cookies, Naturally Sweetened
- Vegan Shortbread Cookies
- Vegan Orange Almond Biscotti
- Vegan Gluten-Free Italian Amaretti Cookies
- Vegan Coconut Almond Macaroons
Vegan Pistachio-Cardamom Shortbread Cookies
Ingredients
- 2 ⅓ cup whole wheat pastry flour
- 1 teaspoon ground cardamom
- ¼ cup vegan butter
- ½ cup avocado oil or any neutral oil
- ⅔ cup sugar
- 2 tablespoon cornstarch ( mixed well with 2 tablespoon water)
- ⅓ teaspoon baking powder
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1 cup pistachios (shelled. Powder them fine in a food processor or spice grinder, and leave a few kernels whole)
Instructions
- In a stand mixer or with a hand mixer, beat the butter, oil and sugar together until light and white and fluffy
- Add the cornstarch-water mixture, baking powder, salt, vanilla extract and blend well until mixture is smooth.
- Add flour, cardamom powder and pistachio powder and mix.
- Roll into small balls, about 1-inch in diameter, and place on a greased cookie sheet, one inch apart. Press down slightly to form discs. Press a pistachio, whole or half, into the center of each cookie.
- Bake in a 350-degree oven for about 11-12 minutes, rotating the sheet halfway through the baking. Remove when the cookies have a hint of golden-brown color on top.
- Place the baking sheet on a rack and let the cookies cool completely before removing them gently with a ladle.
Prue
These were wonderful, thank you!
Orah Ruth
I tried this using unrefined coconut oil, no cardamom and ground pecans. It was very good.