Maple-Pecan Cookies

DRY INGREDIENTS
1 1/2 cups brown rice flour, (or spelt flour)
1/2 cup whole-grain amaranth flour, (or spelt flour)
1/2 cup sorghum flour
1/4 cup ground flax seed
1/2 cup pecans, ground
3 tablespoons Sucanat sugar (or granulated sugar)
1/4 teaspoon sea salt
2 teaspoons baking powder, (double acting)
2 tablespoons vegetable shortening, non-hydrogenated (or unrefined coconut oil or walnut oil or canola oil)
1/2 cup pecans, (pieces or halves)
WET INGREDIENTS
1/3 cup maple syrup
1/4 cup brown rice syrup
3 tablespoons walnut oil, refined, (or canola oil)
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
GARNISH
2 tablespoons pecans, (pieces or halves)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).
Put parchment paper down on a baking sheet (if you don't have parchment paper, you can oil your baking sheet).
Cookies can even stick a little to a non-stick baking sheet which messes up the cookies, so I greatly prefer parchment paper because it always makes for very easy removal.
Combine dry ingredients in a large bowl. Cut shortening (or oil) into flour mixture (using a fork and a knife). Mix in the pecans (either pieces or halves).
Blend wet ingredients in a separate bowl.
Add the wet mixture to the dry mixture, and mix together. It may seem a bit dry at first, but once you get all the ingredients integrated, it will form a slightly sticky, shapable dough. (If other flours besides those being called for are used, additional flour may be needed to create a stiff enough dough. The dough is too wet if you can not form cookies with your hands.)
Form balls of dough and place on the cookie sheet (or sheets). They may be a bit crumbly, but should bake together nicely. Garnish cookies by pressing the remaining pecans into the tops of the cookies.
Bake for about 20 minutes. To prevent the bottoms of the cookies from burning, you may like to put an extra cookie sheet in the oven to protect the main cookie sheet from the oven heating element.
After removing cookies from oven, they will be quite soft. This is partially due to the fact that the brown rice syrup "melts" during baking. Let the cookies sit on the cookie sheet for 5 to 10 minutes to allow them to cool and firm up. They will then be much easier to remove from the sheet. If you wait too long before removing them from the sheet, it will be more difficult to get them off because the brown rice syrup will have hardened too much.