Holiday Tastes: Cardamom Cookies

Photo by Quinn Anna

My love for the magical seed pod named cardamom has been going on for some time. I was first introduced to its  qualities when a good friend of mine was instructing me on the fine art of Indian cooking. Ever since my first whiff, we’ve carried on a mad affair.

I’ve use it in curries, my chili, and pretty much everywhere I can. Last February during the Great Snow, when I was baking non-stop in my little Capitol Hill kitchen, as I was reaching for my vanilla extract, I bumped the cardamom canister and a it started to rain it’s spicy aromatic beauty on me. As the cardamom rained down, the light bulb in my head clicked, and I knew it needed to be made into cookies.

I went home to Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania for Christmas, and my sole responsibilities for Christmas Dinner was wine and cookies. That I can do. I left the rest of the meal up to my father who on Christmas Eve made the amazing Italian tradition of the Feast of the Seven Fishes and on Saturday fed us another amazing meal. But on the cookie table in the living room, yes we had an entire table dedicated to cookies, shining like a beacon on a dark night was the golden light of my cardamom cookies.

As every family member and friend visited the cookie table, I was there, pushing my cardamom on them, and with every bite they smiled. And I could see the hearts in their eyes as they fell in love with this wonderful spice.

To perfect my cardamom cookies, I experimented with several recipes, combining many until I was happy with the outcome. A cookie that had enough cardamom to tease, but not too much to overwhelm. After much searching, I finally came up with this wonderful recipe that browns butter and has the right amount of cardamom. I now present to you, the wonderful cookie of sugar and an exotic spice.

Ingredients:

1 cup of butter

¾ cup of sugar

1 egg yolk

1 teaspoon of vanilla

½ teaspoon of cardamom ( or if you’re like me and an addict, you can add a little more)

2 cups of all purpose flour

1 cup of powdered sugar

Directions:

Melt butter in 2-quart heavy saucepan over medium heat. Continue cooking, stirring constantly and watching closely, until butter just starts to turn golden brown (3 to 5 minutes). (Butter will get foamy and bubble.) Immediately remove from heat. Pour into bowl; refrigerate until cooled (30 minutes).

Heat oven to 350°F. Combine cooled browned butter and sugar in large bowl; beat at medium speed until well mixed. Add egg yolk, vanilla and cardamom; continue beating until well mixed. Reduce speed to low. Beat, gradually adding flour, until mixture is no longer crumbly and forms a dough.

Shape dough into 1-inch balls. Place 1 inch apart onto ungreased cookie sheets. Bake for 10 to 12 minutes or until cookies puff and start to turn light golden brown. (Cookies will have cracks in them.)

Immediately remove from cookie sheets. Cool 1 minute. Roll cookies in powdered sugar while warm and again when completely cooled. Store between sheets of waxed paper in loosely covered container.