Lemon, cardamon cookies encrusted with dark chocolate and pistachio crumbs.

October...think falling leaves, cosy, body hugging knits and comfort food...slow cooked, baked, sweet and stoking a furnace our bellies.  That was the expectant seasonal change, blowing in on a gale as the new October arrived.  Reality?...90 degree heat, vibrant blue skies, summer shorts grabbed from the depths of my ironing basket and a list of recipes to cook, rendered completely inappropriate.  What to do?...go with the flow....what else.

This is my third time cooking with the Secret Recipe Club.  My two previous are here...   This month my baking buddy was Lisa, from sweet-as-sugar-cookies .  She's a busy girl, not only does she partake in the SRC but she also hosts her own Sweets For A Saturday Blog Hop.  There was a unbelievable amount of treats to chose from on her blog for me to try, but I rather bravely (stupidly?) chose a cookie that Lisa said was her ultimate recipe (what was I thinking of...tampering with perfection?!).  Lisa seems to love using lemons in her baking and I have not really used it much in sweet things before so I considered this a great opportunity to bake in someone else apron for a while (as opposed to walking in their shoes).  Being a vegan, as I am, a little tweaking of the recipe was going to be done.  Lisa's original recipe here Whilst delving into the (very long) recipe library on sweet-as-sugar-cookies blog I came across an exotic sorbet, flavoured with sweet perfumed cardamon powder and I just had to add that to the cookies (trust me, it took a while to narrow it down this far for my chosen recipe for the SRC...Lisa, do you do anything else but bake?!).  Finally, I was also inspired to do the sweet... salty....bitter thing by using dark, bitter chocolate, salty roasted pistachios and Truvia (stevia sugar).

In no time at all....Sweet Lemon, cardamon cookies dipped in rich bitter chocolate with a salty pistachio crust were born (baked). 

This recipe is also gluten and refined sugar free.  Makes approx 16 cookies.

Get your pinny on, and turn the oven to 190/375 degrees. Line a baking pan with parchment paper.

Ingredients

1 1/4 cup of flour (I used gluten-free - 1/2 cup sorghum, 1/2 cup almond flour, 1/4 cup potato flour)

2 tbs tofu

1/2 cup vegan butter

1/3 cup fruit syrup or agave

2 tbs lemon zest

1/2 tsp vanilla

1/4 tsp cardamon powder

1 tsp baking powder

1/4 tsp sea salt

to take the indulgence up a notch....dip and dusting will also need....

small bar of dark bitter chocolate (if you want sugar free then splash out of a bar of decadent raw chocolate.  It is usually sweetened with agave or lucuma)

handful of roasted pistachios

1/4 tsp of sea salt

Method

1. Sift the flours, baking powder, cardamon powder, and salt into a bowl.
2.Mix the lemon zest into the fruit syrup then cream with the vegan butter and vanilla.

3. blend the tofu with a hand blender and add to the wet ingredients. Gradually mix in the flour mixture.
4. place the dough ball between two sheets of parchment, sprinkle with the stevia sugar and then roll to 1/4 inch. Cut into your desired shape and place on the baking sheet.

5. Bake for 9-11 min. until set but not browned (oops mine browned a little...I was too busy watching the chocolate melt!)

6. Leave the cookies to cool for a minute then transfer to a wire rack to cool.

7. melt the chocolate in a bain marie (set a bowl in a pan of boiling water and leave it to melt) then dip the cookies in half way and then carefully place on a wire rack. Sprinkle with pistachios and a scant amount of sea salt.

8. continue until all the cookies are dressed up in their cocoa/nut bling and pop into the fridge to set completely.

9. eat.

ta da!

When you join the SRC not only do you get to discover new bloggers every month and try foods that perhaps you wouldn't have tried before, you also have the excitement of the run up to REVEAL day when you get to see what everyone has been busy making in the kitchen and just who was your baking buddy.  I cannot believe how many more people join every month...you can too if you like..just click here to see what the excitement is all about

Thanks for being my October buddy Lisa! x