<< Magnificent Madrona Berries

12/03/08 - Cardamom Cookies

We love cardamom. It is an underused spice, possibly because it can be tricky to spell. Good luck trying to find cardomam on Google. Our favorite use for this spice is in cardamom cookies, and we seem to have lost our old recipe, so we are using a relatively new one from Gourmet. If you want, you can go to Epicurious and look the recipe up yourself, but the one here has been tested at Kaleberg Kitchens, so we know it works.

Bake a batch of these cookies, with or without cookie molds. You might even want to make them a bit thick. These are wonderful shortbread cookies. Shortbread cookies are what Lorna Doones are supposed to be but aren't. Your whole house will be scented with butter and cardamom, and if you like the baking scent of cinnamon, you will be ecstatic with the scent of cardamom. They are perfect for Christmas baking which is when all these old fashioned spices come out of the back of the cupboard and into the oven where they belong.

They don't look like much, but they are delicious.

An open cardamom pod
 Orange Cardamom Cookies (basically the recipe from Gourmet 12/07)
  • 1 cup butter (2 sticks)
  • 3/4 cup sugar
  • 1 egg yolk
  • 2 tbsp heavy cream
  • 2 tbsp orange zest (or more)
  • 1 1/2 tsp ground cardamom
  • 1 tsp salt
  • 2 1/2 cups flour
Smoosh the butter until it is soft and workable. Add the sugar and smoosh it to the butter. Add the egg yolk and the heavy cream and work them into the butter which will get softer. Add the orange zest, cardamom and salt and continue smooshing. Finally, add the flour and work into a slightly crumbly dough.

Divide the dough into four parts and press them into flat rectangles. Let them rest in the refrigerator for 15 to 30 minutes or so. (We actually skip this step which is why our cookies aren't much to look at, but they taste just as good as better rested cookies.) Roll the cookie dough out to about 1/8 inch (or as much as 1/4 inch) on a floured work surface. If you have a speculatius cookie mold, you can use this, otherwise just cut the cookies into 2 inch by 3 inch squares and put them on a baking sheet. Bake for about 8-10 minutes at 350F. (We use a convection oven and special baking sheets, so we get quicker results.) Bake until the edges are brown.

Keywords: food, recipe