Delicious Cardamom Cookies. Cardamom seeds are commonly used in savoury and sweet dishes. Cardamom has a wonderful aroma, which lightens up a basic cookie dough.
Therefore, these cookies smell stunning and taste even better.
They are also great for the interaction with your little ones. Let me tell you, they will really stand in front of the oven until Cardamom Cookies are ready. Afterwards, they cannot wait until they cool down, so they can decorate them and finally eat them. If they make it until then, of course.
My request for this year (2016) was to make teddy bear cookie. There are plenty of ideas on how to decorate or innovate. Just choose for yourself and do not overthink it. Enjoy!
Total Time: 1 day
Shopping list
The Dough:
80g of butter, soft in cubes
115g of icing sugar, sifted
1 whole egg
150g of plain flour, sifted + 100g more for working board
1 teaspoon of lemon zest
½ teaspoon of ground cardamom
The Topping:
250g of icing sugar, sifted
4 tablespoons of cranberry, red currant or raspberry juice (I used juice from pickled sour cherries)
2 tablespoons of sour cherry marmalade
Ground almonds, silver or white sugar pearls to finish
Instructions
The Dough
In a large mixing bowl whisk the butter and sugar until it gets nicely foamy and whitens.
Next, add the egg and incorporate well. Continue whisking until sugar is dissolved completely, for about 3 more minutes.
Flour, lemon zest and cardamom in. Mix well with a spatula. Place the dough in a cling foil and let it rest overnight in the fridge.
Next day.
Preheat the oven to 160 degrees.
Prepare the working place. Line 3 medium baking trays with a baking paper. Generously sieve the flour over the surface and take out the dough.
Roll out the dough with a roller to ½ cm. Rather thicker than thinner, depending on the shapes. By using cutters, create desirable shapes (I used Christmas trees, rounds and hearts). Continue until there is no dough left.
Gently transfer all cookies onto a baking tray lined with baking paper. Bake in the oven for about 10-15 minutes (depending on the thickness) until they get lightly golden. Then, take them out and let them cool down entirely.
The Topping
In a small mixing bowl place sugar. Stir in the juice, 1 tablespoon at a time. Whisk until the mix becomes a homogeneous smooth texture (not too liquid, not too thick).
Mold the mixture into a decorating bag and decorate The Cardamom Cookies.
If you want to create darker color (as per difference above) or change style of decorating, leave some part of The Topping and stir in some dark marmalade. All natural and yummy.
As an addition, you can sprinkle the cookies with some ground almonds or sugar figures.
Makes 3 medium baking trays.