Friday, December 28, 2007

Christmas Cookie Recipes: Cardamom Cookies aka White Gingerbread


K. playing around with gingerbread. See another example of his food styling here. The cookie cutter (do you recognise the Moomin character?) is a gift from Dagmar.

I baked a lot of cookies this Christmas - gingerbread cookies, matcha madeleines, sweet mayonnaise cookies, coconut macaroons, and these lovely pale cardamom cookies - to give away as gifts. The recipe is from a Finnish site, and they were called white gingebread cookies, if I remember correctly. The naughty bit is that they don't look like gingerbread cookies - which are supposed to be, of course, dark brown (see the colour contrast on the top photo?) - but they contain a generous doze of cardamom, which gives them a very Christmassy feel. Sneaky, eh?

Oh, if you don't have ground cardamom, then seeds from about 20 pods give you about 1 tsp of ground spice at the end. And be careful not to overbake them - you want white gingerbread after all!

White Gingerbread aka Cardamom Cookies
(Valged piparkoogid e. kardemoniküpsised)
Recipe from the Finnish Pirkka-site
Makes about 4 dozen




125 g butter, at room temperature
100 g sugar
1 egg
50 ml double cream
150 g plain flour
100 g potato starch/potato flour
2 tsp vanilla sugar
1 tsp ground cardamom
0.5 tsp baking powder

Cream butter and sugar until light, then whisk in the egg.
Mix the dry ingredients (flour, potato starch, vanilla sugar, cardamom and baking powder), add to the butter mixture together with the double cream. Press into a dough ball and place into the fridge for about 3 hours (I left it overnight).
Roll the dough out on a slightly floured surface into 3-5 mm thickness. Cut out cookies and place onto a cookie sheet covered with parchment paper.
Bake at 200 C for 6-8 minutes, until the cookies are very slightly golden.
Cool and decorate with sugar glazing (recipe here).

19 comments:

Gracianne said...

They look lovely pille. Those are perfect as Christmas gifts.
I wish you a wonderful end of the year, and my best wishes for the new one.

David T. Macknet said...

They look great, and I like the idea of "stealth" gingerbread. :)

ScienceMel said...

Great cookies! Might have to nick that recipe and try it one afternoon. Nothing is better for the soul than baking/cooking.

I trust you and your family are having a lovely holiday season. Best wishes for health and happiness in the new year.

Almost Vegetarian said...

I love cardamom in gingerbread. I also put in a pinch of dried, ground mustard. It gives a subtle heat which just elevates the taste.

Cheers!

K and S said...

ooh this sounds delicious, will have to try it! thanks for sharing.

Lydia (The Perfect Pantry) said...

White gingerbread -- what a lovely idea! I've resolved to use cardamom more in the coming year, and these cookies sound like a perfect place to start. (I love K's gingerbread men, too!)

Evelin said...

valged piparkoogid on tuttav teema, meie ülepõllunaabritädi tavatses neid ikka jõuludel meile ka tuua. neil olid minu arvates siiski kõik vürtsid sees ja kui ma nüüd õigesti mäletan, maitsesid need natuke piparmündi järele ka.

Ilusat pühade jätku:)

ThursdayNext said...

Next season I will certainly try cardamom in the gingerbread cookies; what lovely cookies you made and what great photos...they had me craving a big glass of milk as I viewed them. :)

Shayne said...

Once everyone recovers from all the Christmas cookies I will have to try this one. These really look great.

Cakespy said...

They sound (and look!) sooo good!!

Nora B. said...

My mom and I love cardamom so this would be a fabulous recipe for me to try while I am visiting her.

Happy New Year!

Nora

Anonymous said...

The Hattifatteners! I think... :) Adorable!

Pille said...

Gracianne – merci! These were very well received by the recipients, for sure..

DaviMack – yep. They look so innocent, like vanilla cookies, and yet...

ScienceMel – I so agree with you. I think baking and cooking kept me sane during the doctoral studies in Edinburgh :)

Almost Vegetarian – I’ve never heard of mustard powder in gingerbread dough, but then I can see it’d give a nice kick to the flavour, so why not!?

K&S – you’re welcome!

Lydia – I use cardamom quite a lot – my favourite ‘place’ for cardamom is in the vanilla and cardamom boston.

Evelin – ’ülepõllunaabritädi’ kõlab väga vahvalt :)

ThursdayNext – still-slightly-warm-cookies and a glass of cold milk go well together indeed..

Shayne – because they’re white, they don’t look TOO christmassy, so you could easily serve them way after Christmas..

Nora B- I hope your mum will like them!

Cakespy – thank you!

Joey – of course these are the Hattifatteners! Well done!!

Antonio Tahhan said...

What a great blog you have!! I linked to this entry on my latest blog entry: "Is Cardamom the new Cinnamon?"
Keep posting!

Anonymous said...

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India the event is celebrated with great joy and enthusiasm by the people no matter

to what religion or place they belong. Celebration of Christmas is marked by

decoration of houses in most splendid way. People erect Christmas tree and decorate

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Christmas

Elizabeth Urso said...

Let Us Keep Christmas
Whatever else be lost among the years,
Let us keep Christmas still a shining thing;
Whatever doubts assail us, or what fears,
Let us hold close one day, remembering
It's poignant meaning for the hearts of men.
Let us get back our childlike faith again.

Unknown said...

I can say that I honestly have never heard of white gingerbread but these a just so cute. I think I will definitely have to try they out this Christmas season. I love Cookie Recipes especially because they can so easy be altered to one's individual tastes. I work with Better Recipes and I love reviewing new recipes to share with my family and friends. Can't wait to tell them about this one.

Anonymous said...

Pille,
This recepie sounds very interesting.
Could I use some corn starch instead of potato starch? Does it make any difference?
Piret

Pille said...

Piret, you can easily use corn starch instead of potato starch - take the same amount.