[cap id="attachment_3798" align="aligncenter" width="300"]Cookies covered in crushed nuts and buckwheat seeds[/cap]

For nut free option use pepitas and sunflower seeds instead of almonds and pecans, and coat in seeds as well

Cookies can be kept at room temperature but I store them in the fridge where they remain hard as I love biting through the solid nutty exterior into the middle … yum!

To portion the cookies equally use an ice-cream scoop … if you don’t have one then you can portion them using a spoon but you will need to wet the spoon and your hands intermittently to stop the mix sticking to you

To toast the nuts or seeds place into a preheated 180 degree fan forced oven and bake 5 minutes, turn over in the tray and continue for another 5 to 7 minutes until lightly toasted … this can be done ahead of time, or whilst you are collecting all your other ingredients … if doing the latter allow the nuts to cool for 10 minutes before lightly chopping and adding to the dry mix, you do not need to chop the seeds

You should get approximately 60g juice from each lemon so if you are a bit short then you will need to juice a third … if that is the case add in the extra zest of the third lemon

Once the cookies are baked keep leftover nuts or seeds that fall off the cookies onto the baking tray to sprinkle on your next salad or use over yoghurt … they are too gorgeous to waste

Use whatever nuts you like to coat the cookies, sunflower, buckwheat and sesame seeds work really well too as does coconut, but my absolute favourite is crushed peanuts

If you love the peanut flavour then you can add 100% crunchy peanut paste to the mix before rolling … allow 2 tbls of paste for every 12 cookies so you can divide the mix up if you wish, or make all of them more “peanutty” by adding the amount of paste you need

To easily crush nuts place them into a plastic bag and run a rolling pin over them … you want the pieces to be relatively small but not a “meal” so it is better to do it this way than using a machine

I use Buderim “Naked” Ginger which is easily purchased at grocery stores but use whatever you have or prefer

Recipe can be halved but if you make the full amount you have enough to last a good couple of weeks and they keep very well in the fridge (they do not need to be kept refrigerated but I like them in the fridge where they will remain hard)

These cookies improve by being left overnight before consuming … the flavours have a chance to mature and the sweet/sour taste of the fruit vs lemon juice really develops

If you are time poor you can bake this mix as a slice but it won’t be as firm as the cookies … spread the mix into a large lined slice tin (30cm x 20cm), spread over half the amount of warmed honey, top with a good coating of nuts/seeds and bake 20 minutes, turn tray around and bake for a further 20 minutes, remove from oven and allow to cool an hour before placing in the fridge to get completely cold before slicing into desired pieces (you will get more even slices when it is cold)