Holidays and baking always go together for me! It just feels so warm and cozy to turn on the oven when it’s cold outside and let the sweet smells of baking waft through the house!
Usually I end up baking 3 or 4 desserts, including a fruit bread, cookies, cookie bars etc. to share with friends and neighbors for the holidays. However, this year I wasn’t in a mood to celebrate so ended up making just these Pistachio Cardamom cookies that we shared with our sweet neighbor and a few close friends.
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| Pistachio Cardamom Cookies with a Cup of Green Tea |
I had originally tried this recipe out for a Middle-Eastern dinner party, as the ingredients seemed so perfect for the theme. Since they were such a big hit, I decided to make the same for my holiday gift bags.
The original recipe came from Baked by Joanna and the first time around I followed the recipe by the book and it turned out great! (As always I am amazed that there are so many talented food bloggers that I run in to every day online.) This time around, for the holidays, I decided to try a batch with pecans instead of pistachios. I have to say, the pistachios do work better with the cardamom giving it an exotic flavor, taste and look.
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| Pecan Cardamom cookies |
So here’s the recipe and the pictures for some of the steps.
Recipe for Pistachio Cardamom Cookies
Adapted from BakedbyJoanna.com
Ingredients:
- 2 cups all purpose flour
- 3/4 tsp salt
- 1 tsp cardamom powder (4-5 pods)
- 2/3 cup sugar
- 1 cup (8 Tbsp) unsalted butter (room temperature)
- 3 oz cream cheese (room temperature)
- 1 Tbsp vanilla extract
- 1 tsp orange zest (use a grater on a whole orange)
- 1 1/2 cup pistachios (or pecans)
Method:
- Remember to leave the butter and cream cheese out overnight to come to room temperature
- Roast the pistachios for 10 mins at 300F until fragrant. Let cool. Then roughly chop and set aside
- Combine the flour, salt and cardamom powder in a bowl and set aside
- Using a hand mixer, mix the butter, cream cheese and vanilla extract until creamy, about 2 mins
- Add the sugar in to the same bowl and mix with the hand mixer at slow speed, about 2 mins
- Then add the flour mix at continue to mix at slow speed until combined
- Remove the hand mixer and fold in the nuts
- Using your hands, form the mixture in to 2 balls of equal size and then make those balls in to a log shape, about 8 inches long each
- Wrap in plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 4 hours, better overnight
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| Pistachio Cardamom Cookies |
- To bake the cookies, preheat oven to 325F. (I had to play with the temperature a bit so as to not brown the cookies)
- Slice the refrigerated logs in to approximately 1/4″ thick rounds
- Place in a single layer on a cookie sheet
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| Pistachio Cardamom Cookies on a sheet ready to be baked |
- Bake for 9-10 minutes on one side, then flip over and bake for 9-10 minutes on the other side. Total bake time of 18-20 minutes.
- Let cool completely before enjoying with your tea!
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| Pistachio Cardamom Cookies with Tea |
And before I forget, here’s wishing everyone a very Happy New Year 2015! We hope to focus more on cooking healthy, eating healthy and enjoying the beautiful California outdoors more!