Roopa
I don’t know if you’ve had cardamom shortbread cookies before, but they taste like my childhood. When I picture the taste of happiness, it resembles these cookies. That could be some upbringing bias right there, but I’m OK with that.
I’ve made these cookies once before, but they didn’t turn out as I’d hoped. I ground the cardamom quite finely, and after baking the taste wasn’t as potent as I wanted. This time I increased the amount of cardamom, left it in larger chunks, and sprinkled some finely ground cardamom on top. I was much happier with how these turned out. As usual, I used my favourite shortbread recipe from Sprinklebakes.
INGREDIENTS
- ½ lb / 2 sticks unsalted butter, softened
- 1/8 cup granulated sugar
- ½ cup icing sugar
- ½ tsp. almond extract
- pinch of salt
- 2 cups flour
- 20 pods cardamom, coarsely ground* (plus another 4 pods to sprinkle on top)
DIRECTIONS
- Beat together the butter and granulated sugar until fluffy.
- Add icing sugar and mix thoroughly.
- Add in extract, salt, and cardamom, and mix well.
- Add in flour one cup at a time at a low speed, until a dough forms
- Divide into two balls, flatten them out, and saran wrap them. Place in the fridge for ~half an hour.**
- When you’re ready to start rolling and cutting, preheat the oven to 350F.
- Roll one ball of dough out while the dough is cold (with a floured rolling pin) and cut into desired shapes. Place cookies onto a parchment lined baking sheet, roll dough out, and repeat.***
- Bake small cookies for ~10 minutes (~15 for medium cookies and ~20 for large cookies), rotating the pan halfway through.
- Sprinkle cookies with fine cardamom powder immediately after removal.
Flattened, saran wrapped balls
* I always grind my cardamom with a spoon of granulated sugar. I find it helps get the consistency I like.
** I was impatient and used the freezer.
***I also chilled the sheet of cookies prior to baking to help retain their shape.
I find Vancouver to be a touch warmer than Edmonton, and I think my cookies did too. The dough thawed within ~1 minute of being worked, so my rolling and cutting process was a lot sloppier than I like. I probably needed to flour my surface a bit more, but too much flour can change the cookie consistency. The moral of the story is that Edmonton winters can occasionally be useful.
Chateau Gateau 