Vegan pistachio-rose water cookies

I've had a busy week preparing for a group presentation that I had today. I haven't had much time to bake this week and so after it was all over I decided to pull out my Veganomicon cookbook and whip up a recipe I've been meaning to bake for a while.

The recipe was for Pistachio-Rose Water Cookies. I've never used rose water in baking before so I wasn't too sure what to expect. 

This recipe was very simple and the cookies were lovely too. The rose water actually tasted like roses and so it gave the cookies a subtle floral taste. The cookies were very light and crispy too, making it a bit hard to stop at just one :P

I've decided to post up the recipe just in case anyone wants to try this too :)

Vegan Pistachio-Rose Water Cookies (Adapted from Veganomicon: The Ultimate Vegan Cookbook)

Makes 32 cookies (for me it only made 27)

Time: 35 minutes

Ingredients

• 1 ¼ cups sweetener (I used Stevia)
• ½ cup sunflower oil
• 3 tablespoons soy milk (or any other non-dairy milk)
• 1 tablespoon rose water
• 2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
• 1 tablespoon fresh lime juice
• 1 teaspoon finely grated lime zest
  ¼ cup cornstarch
• 1 ¾ cups all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
  ½ teaspoon salt
  ¼ teaspoon cardamon
• 1 cup shelled pistachio, coarsely chopped

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 180 degrees C. Lightly grease two cookie sheets
2. In a mixing bowl, whisk together the sweetener, oil, soy milk, rose water, vanilla, lime juice, and zest. Add the cornstarch and whisk until dissolved.
3. Add the flour, baking powder, salt, and cardamon. Mix well.
4. Roll the dough into balls about 2 teaspoons in size and dip the tops into the chopped pistachios. Press down with two fingers; the dough will flatten a bit and pistachios will collect on the bottom. 
5. Place the cookies, nut side up, about 2 inches apart on the baking sheets. 
6. Bake for 13 minutes; they will be soft but if you prefer them that way then that's fine because they will firm up a bit as they cool. (I baked mine for 20 minutes and they were still slightly soft in the middle and crispy on the edges).
7. Remove from the oven and let cool on the cookie sheets for about 5 minutes. Transfer to a cooling rack to cool completely.