Sunday Salutations and Gluten-Free Cardamon Cookies

Today, I decided to post a recipe. This is actually a recipe requested by a few people that I work with. I brought a version of these cookies to work for a co-worker’s birthday. I think these cookies are a hit because they are a mix of sweet and spicy and go well with coffee (so says the husband, as I don’t drink coffee) or with vanilla ice cream (because who can turn down ice-cream?). The cookies aren’t too sweet, which appears to be a common problem in modern recipes for many of us. While these cookies don’t require a topping, I also provide two topping options. Or you can go crazy and use both.

Enjoy!

Dry ingredients
3/4 cup chickpea flour
3/4 cup casava flour (An alternative to tapioca flour)
1/4 cup of tigernut flour
1/8 cup of hazelnut flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon sea salt
1 teaspoon of cardamom
1/2 teaspoon of black pepper
1/2 teaspoon of cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon of nutmeg
1/8 teaspoon of clove

Wet ingredients
1/4 cup ghee
1/4 cup flex seed milk
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/4 cup honey (or maple syrup)
1/4 cup of coconut sugar
2 Tablespoons of maple sugar

3 eggs or egg replacement (I use Red Mills)

Mixing and Baking
Sift together all dry ingredients.
Mix together all wet ingredients.
Slowly mix the wet into the dry ingredients.
Roll out dough and cut out pieces.
Yes, I like stars what can I say!

Cook in pre-heated oven for 10-12 minutes at 350 degrees.

By themselves, these cookies are delightful, but if you want a topping here are a couple options. Neither option is very sweet, so taste and modify to your preference.

Optional Topping One: Spicy Dark Chocolate dip
On low, in a pot, melt together:
2 tsp of ghee
5 oz of unsweetened baker’s chocolate
1/8 cup of coconut sugar (or to taste)
1/8 cup of honey
1/8 tsp of cayenne pepper
1/16 tsp of salt

Slowly stir until all chocolate is melted.

Dip cookies in chocolate and set aside to cool. This will produce a soft chocolate covering. If you want it to be harder, you can leave out the ghee. If you want it to be almost crispy when it hardens, remove the honey as well. But just be sure to replace the honey with coconut sugar or some other dissolvable sweetener or the topping will be downright bitter. I suggest that you add a wee bit more sugar in the chocolate than you think you need, because the base cookie recipe isn’t super sweet.

FYI, we live in Texas, and it is summer so for us that means we used the refrigerator to cool ours.

If don’t like hot spices, you can remove the cayenne pepper. Sweetness can be increased by adding more coconut sugar. Don’t add more honey unless you want the topping to be very, very soft or you have removed the ghee…

Optional Topping Two: Sweet White Chocolate Dip
1 tsp of ghee or coconut oil
4 oz of white chocolate (HEB organics white chocolate, baking chocolate)
1/2 tsp of vanilla
1 Tablespoon of coconut sugar (or to taste)
1/16 tsp of salt

Slowly stir until all chocolate is melted.
Dip or drizzle on the cookies.

I hope everyone had a delightful weekend and make sure to appreciate those around you.

~Anna