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cardamom cookies un decorated

Rich Rolled Cardamom Cookies

A cardamom flavoured twist on a Joy of Cooking classic.
Course Dessert

Ingredients
  

  • 1 cup (225g) unsalted butter cubed and softened
  • cup (140g) caster sugar (I used 128 g)
  • 1 whole egg
  • 1 tsp vanilla extract
  • cups (375g) sifted all purpose (plain) flour
  • ½ tsp salt
  • ½ tsp ground cardamom

Instructions
 

  • In your mixer at low speed, combine flour, sugar, cardamom, and salt
  • Add butter piece by piece and mix until dough looks like wet sand ~2 minutes
  • Add egg and vanilla extract and beat until dough starts to come together (you're looking for a couple big hunks of dough here) ~30s-1m
  • Turn out onto the counter and knead only until it comes together into a ball of dough
  • Divide in two, form into balls and flatten into disks.
  • Wrap each disk in plastic wrap (cling film) and chill in the refrigerator at least 3-4 hours and up to a day or two (if chilling longer, you may want to thaw slightly before rolling)
  • Preheat oven to 350F/180C/160F position the rack in the middle rack
  • Cut parchment to size for your baking sheets.
  • Working with one disk at a time, leaving the 2nd in the fridge to chill, roll the dough out between two pieces of parchment or wax paper to ¼ inch thick. Cut your cookies and carefully transfer them to the baking parchment spacing them about 1 inch apart.
  • Re-roll the scraps and cut out cookies for as long as you're happy to. If it gets too soft, roll it to ¼ inch thick and chill in the fridge for ~10 minutes before continuing to work. (Not a bad idea to chill the raw cookies on the cookie sheet while you're at it)
  • Now's the time to decorate - if you decorate your cookies pre-baking. Sprinkle the cookies with princess sugar, coloured sugar, egg wash, sprinkles, your choice.
  • Bake, 1 sheet at a time 6-9 minutes, rotating the sheet after about 4 minutes. When the cookies are done they'll just start to take a little color on the top and maybe appear a little darker on the edges.
  • Cool on the cookie sheet for 3-5 minutes, then transfer them to a wire rack to finish cooling.
  • If you're more a "decorate after" type - i.e. you use glaze - do so once the cookies have cooled completely.

Notes

  • Cool baking sheets completely between uses - if needed run them under cold tap water. 
  • You don't want the dough so cold it's cracking when you're working with it, but if it's getting soft and the cookies don't hold their shape when moving them to the baking sheet, roll it out if it's not already and put it, and the cut cookies for that matter, in the fridge for about 10 minutes to cool it back down.
  • dip your cutters in flour to help keep them from sticking to the dough, from time to time, wipe them down.
  • Prevent your cookie cutters from rusting: wash them as the last couple of sheets of cookies are baking, after the last batch is out of the oven, cool the oven a little (maybe 275F/160C/140C fan?), give the cutters a quick dry with a dish towel, and pop them in the oven for 5 minutes.
Keyword cardamom, cookies, desserts, holiday