Treat yourself to elegant Mother’s Day cookies

BY

The month of May always seems to take me by surprise. Like a mischievous kitten, the month sneakily creeps up behind me, crouches at the end of April, then pounces and makes itself known when I’m not looking.

Cinco de Mayo, Mother’s Day, the end of the school year, and Memorial Day all sprint by as I try to keep up, with nary a moment to catch my breath.

Spring is almost gone. In my sometimes strange mind, I equate Mother’s Day as the beginning of the end of spring. Maybe it’s the red, white, and blue of it all, but I figure by the time Memorial Day rolls around, the spring season is gone and summer days are here again. So, I like to stop and savor Mother’s Day and all that it brings. Especially the food.

Because both my mom and my husband’s mom live outside of California, we don’t have a large extended family Mother’s Day gathering at our house. Our celebration is an intimate one. Just us. And because it’s kind of all about me, I enjoy looking for just the right dessert for that day.

There was a time in my life, say 20 years ago, when dessert meant chocolate and lots of it. But I’ve grown past the need for triple chocolate anything to satisfy my sweet tooth.

Don’t get me wrong. I still enjoy chocolate but it’s got to be the quality stuff. I’ve decided life is too short to eat cheap chocolate.

Cakes are always a hands down hit at our house. There is one winter birthday and four summertime birthdays in our family, so each year the birthday boy or girl gets to choose what kind of cake they would like me to make. But since cake seems to smack too much of birthday candles and piñatas, I ruled that out for my Mother’s Day dessert.

Now, what about pie? They are homey, trusty standbys for using up fruit that occasionally doesn’t get eaten fast enough. And as you might have guessed, pies don’t last long in our house either. I made two types of apple pie recently and they were both gone in 24 hours. Somehow though, a Mother’s Day pie doesn’t seem dainty enough for the day.

Never one to turn down a good cookie, I decided to look around for new cookie recipes. Cookies are a lot like moms; they are handy to have around and are good with coffee. The recipe that caught my eye was a subtle, sandy, shortbread-type cookie. My kids might like it, my husband not so much. And me? Yes, this was definitely my kind of cookie.

Inspired by the sweets of the Mediterranean countries, this cookie is not too sweet, flavored with cardamom, and topped with crunchy pistachios. I found this recipe on the MyRecipe.com website; it was originally published in Cooking Light magazine.

I baked a batch of these and found them to be delicate, delicious, and a solid companion to a strong cup of tea. Perfect for Mother’s Day.

Cardamom Pistachio Cookies

Makes approximately 32 cookies

• 1 cup powdered sugar
• 6 tablespoons unsalted butter,  barely melted
• 5 tablespoons sunflower oil
• 3/4 to 1 teaspoon ground cardamom
• 1 large egg yolk
• 1 1/2 cups brown rice flour
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 3 tablespoons finely chopped pistachios

Combine sugar, butter, and oil in the bowl of a stand mixer; beat at medium speed for 1 1/2 minutes or until well combined and pale. Add cardamom and egg yolk, beating until combined.

Weigh or lightly spoon flour into dry measuring cups; level with a knife. Gradually add flour and salt to butter mixture, beating just until combined.

Divide dough into two equal portions. Shape each portion into a 6-inch log. Wrap logs individually in plastic wrap; refrigerate 12 to 24 hours.

Preheat oven to 350°. Cover two baking sheets with parchment paper.

Remove dough logs from refrigerator. Cut each log into 16 slices; place slices one inch apart on baking sheets. (Pat slices together if they crumble.) Sprinkle with pistachios.

Bake at 350° for 17 minutes or until edges begin to brown, rotating pans halfway through.

Let stand five minutes; place cookies on a wire rack. Cool completely.