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 vegetable 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.
jan
Vaishali, I'm a great fan of your recipies, creativity using all Indian spices into vegan baking. One small concern though, isn't shortening unhealthy? I'm not 100% vegan, I follow your recipes 99% time, occasionaly do eggless baking, that time use butter/yogurt. If I don't want to use shortening, can I substitute with exact amount butter in this recipe? In that case, do I need to have cornstarch in it, can I skip that?
Vaishali
Hi Jan, yes you could. The shortening does give it that great crumbly texture though and you won't get the same effect with the butter.
Anna
Thank you Vaishali, these are delicious!! Yes, they are crumbly when you eat them - short as anything - but they don't fall to bits in your hand.
Vaishali
Hi Anonymous, Yes increase the water proportionately -- 4 tbsp of all purpose would need 4 tbsp water. I haven't tried replacing cornstarch with all-purpose flour in a cookie recipe before, but hope it works! 🙂
Anonymous
Hi Vaishali
I read online 1 tbsp cornstarch can be replaced by 2tbsp all purpose flour. In that case do you think I need to increase the quantity of water as well?
Thank you
Pearlsofeast
Great recipe. Pistachios looks stunning.Nice blog
Vaishali
Anjali, Welcome! I look forward to seeing you around too.
ANJALI J.
hey i loved ur blog
thanks for ur comments. will add ur blog to my fav blogger's list 🙂
hope to see more of u.
Latha
Thanks for the clear explanation:) I think i know now what you mean. Because I live in Germany the flour names are a bit confusing... but now I know what I should use.
Vaishali
Hi Latha, Thanks! Whole-wheat pastry flour is made using the whole grain of a soft white wheat. It has lower gluten content and is therefore perfect to bake cookies, cakes and muffins (it's not delicate enough for really white cakes, though). Also, since the whole grain is used to make this flour, it has lots more dietary fiber and protein, unlike all-purpose flour.
If you don't have access to whole-wheat pastry flour, though, just use all-purpose flour or even maida.
I hope that helps 🙂
Latha
They do look crumbly, Vaishali:) What is a pastry flour, please? Is it the normal whole-wheat flour or with baking powder added?
Susan
Shortbread has always been for me the cookie to beat. As a kid, I adored "Lorna Doones." These look impossibly special!
Vaishali
Thanks, everyone!
Sagari
lovely cookies vaishali
Anke
these look wonderful. glad you managed to create them in their vegan version and your hubby loved them 🙂
remya
wow!!! crispy cookies....
vimmi
Great Looking cookies. Love pistachios