Lavender Cashew Shortbread Cookies (Grain Free, Vegan)
Lavender and cardamom. Soft and sweet. Oven on, mixing bowl full, rubbing extra coconut oil from the spoon on my hands and lips. Tasting and mixing. A pinch of this and that. This chemistry that creates such pleasure. There's a place for gooey, decadent, caramel and chocolate and sugar cookies. And there's a place for every day cookies, elevated.
I've fallen completely out of the habit of buying cookies and snacks at the grocery. So when I want a sweet I either reach for a date, a square of chocolate, or I whip up a batch of cookies. As the Spring settles in and my daffodils show their green stalks poking up out of the earth, I crave simplicity. In my home, my meals, my projects. These shortbread are so quick, as shortbread goes, that I can whip up a quadruple batch and have cookies in the cabinet all week. Cookies that make me feel good, that I can eat after a yoga class or a run, that I can pack as a legitimately excellent snack in my bag when I go out. I admittedly sometimes eat a half dozen at a time without even thinking about it.
When my friend Kelsie came to visit many a good thing happened. But more than anything, her visit reminded me of how valuable close friendships are. And also got me stoked to put more lavender in EVERYTHING. And today is her birthday! I made her a batch of these cookies and mailed them to her in Norfolk. That's the real reason these cookies happened. They're a celebration of a spectacularly beautiful goddess babe. Also, she makes phone cases with dried flower petals and leaves. GO BUY ALL OF THEM.
- 2 cups fine almond meal
- 1/2 cup chopped cashews
- 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
- 1 tablespoon dried lavender buds
- 1 teaspoon ground black cardamom
- pinch sea salt
- 1/4 cup maple syrup
- 1/2 cup coconut oil, melted and cooled to room temperature
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- *Optional: lemon icing & extra lavender, to top
- Icing
- powdered sugar
- vanilla extract
- lemon juice
- Line two baking sheets with parchment paper -- or grease the pans lightly with coconut oil. Set aside.
- In a medium mixing bowl, combine the almond meal, cashews, baking soda, lavender, and sea salt.
- In a separate mixing bowl, combine the maple syrup, coconut oil, and vanilla extract.
- Add the wet ingredients to the bowl of dry ingredients and combine until an even, pliable dough forms.
- Use your hands to form the dough into two balls and place each dough ball onto a sheet of parchment paper or plastic wrap.
- Roll the two dough balls out into logs, about 6 inches long. (If your dough is too warm to form into logs that hold together, wrap and freeze the dough for 20 minutes to solidify the fats that hold this dough together before working the dough into logs).
- Wrap and freeze the logs for 30 minutes (or refrigerate for at least 2 hours).
- Once the logs are cooled, preheat the oven to 350F and remove the logs from the freezer/fridge, place them on your work surface, and unwrap.
- Cut the logs into 1/4 inch cookies and space them about 1 inch apart on your baking sheets.
- Bake for 12-15 minutes or until the cookies are just beginning to gently turn golden on the edges.
- Remove from the oven and let cool to room temperature before removing them from the pan.
- *Optional: Ice & sprinkle with more lavender if desired.
- As with any icing, thickness is really up to your preference. I start with 1 cup powdered sugar and add 1/8 tsp of vanilla extract and 1/8 tsp lemon juice at a time, stirring to combine, until I get the thickness I like. I personally like the icing to act like royal icing (super thick) so that it hardens within a couple of hours of icing my cookies.