Cardamom and orange zest make this Cardamom Spice Sugar Cookie one of the best tasting sugar cookies ever!
I love decorating sugar cookies, but always found I didn’t like the taste of them, so after many batches of cookie experiments I’ve come up with a Cardamom Spice Sugar Cookie that tastes awesome. I decorated my cookies with Royal Icing and used a Brush Embroidery technique to make the pretty flowers. The best way to learn this cookie decorating technique is to watch a video. I have not ventured into the world of videos so here’s the link to a cookie decorating master, Amber Spiegel of SweetAmbs
Cardamom Spice Sugar Cookie
The subtle hint of Cardamom and orange zest makes this Cardamom Spice Sugar Cookie the best tasting sugar cookie you'll ever bake.
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Servings: 3 dozen
Ingredients
- 1 1/2 cups softened butter (not melted, just room temp)
- 1 1/2 cups sugar
- 1 vanilla bean opened and seeds scraped out
- 2 eggs + extra yolk
- 1 1/2 tsp cardamom
- 1 tbsp grated orange zest
- 3 3/4 cups all purpose flour
- 1 tsp salt
Instructions
- Sift together flour, salt and cardamom spice.
- Using electric mixer beat butter and sugar together until fluffy, about 5 mins.
- Add vanilla bean and orange zest mix well.
- Add eggs and combine well.
- Slowly add the flour mix a bit at a time.
- Separate dough into 2 separate pieces. Wrap in plastic wrap and chill for at least 30 minutes.
- When ready to bake preheat oven to 375 degrees and line cookie sheets with parchment paper.
- On floured work surface roll disk out to 1/8 to 1/4 inch thickness.
- Cut out with cookie cutter shape of your choice and transfer to baking sheet.
- Bake 6-9 minutes (just until edges start to brown).
- Cool completely and decorate with Royal Icing.
Notes
Click here: How to make Royal Icing
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I Could use orange extract and vanilla extract in equal parts insted of using vanilla bean paste and orange zest?
Hi Angela, vanilla extract would work well, and I have not tried orange extract myself, but it should work ok. I personally really like the flavour of fresh orange zest.
Hey Amber,
I have been watching a bunch of your decorating videos since college and now that I have finally graduated as an engineer (parent’s plan) I have splurged and bought a couple cookie decorating tools, and am ready to try and decorate. Is this sugar cookie soft or crisp?
Congrats on getting your Engineering degree. My son just graduated from Engineering this year as well. The sugar cookie is more on the hard side, but not too hard. (not hard like store bought cookies) These still have a nice chew to them.
Thanks Lauren! I will make some for Valentine’s Day!
I made this recipe and it was very wet and sticky. I followed it to the T and its 28 degrees here, no humidity. Any ideas?
*LOVED the taste though*
Hi Jessica, I made this recipe with variations of flavours countless times and haven’t had wet sticky dough, so I’m not sure what happened for you. Let’s trouble shoot a couple of things. For the flour, did you use all-purpose flour and measure exactly 3 and 3/4 cups. (not sifted) also the butter is 1 and 1/2 cups. Secondly after mixing dough did you chill for at least 30 minutes? Then roll out dough on floured surface.
Hi Laureen. I really appreciate your quick reply! I love the taste- I think I ate more than I baked haha
Alright so I used unbleached all-purpose flour, exactly 3 3/4 cups. Now my “1 cup” measuring cup cracked the other day, so I used 7 “1/2 cups” and 1 “1/4 cup”. Maybe it was slightly off with that, but couldn’t be more than say a tablespoon. I sifted after with salt and cardamom.
Butter was 3 sticks, left on the counter for several hours until soft.
I let it chill overnight actually!
And I rolled it out on parchment paper that was floured and floured my Joseph Joseph rolling pin.
Ideas?
Hi Jessica, umm, the only thing I think would have caused the dough to be sticky then is not enough flour. Hope you try them again.
Even though they were sticky, they were still the best tasting cookies I have made. I’ll add a little more flour and try again 🙂
Thank you!
Hi, I totally loved these cookies, so did the kids!
However, I did have the same problem, the dough was far too sticky and soft to roll out, which is a shame as I was oping the children could have had fun rolling / cutting out.
I also followed the recipe?
I really have no idea what could have gone wrong…?
Thanks again.
Hi Tina, the problem was most likely not enough flour. Did you sift the flour before measuring it? Flour should not be sifted before measuring unless a recipe calls for it. Also did you chill the dough and generously flour surface and rolling pin before trying to roll out the dough? I’ve made this recipe so many times and never had a problem. Mixing in a bit more flour would easily salvage the dough.
Same issue here. I chilled the dough very thoroughly, but I still had to work in a lot of flour to keep it from sticking to everything. I’ll do the same flavors again, but probably put them in a dough recipe that uses weights instead of measures.
Hi Emily, I have made this recipe countless times without ever having dough too sticky. The flour should NOT be sifted, just scoop it out of the bag. The orange zest you used was just grated orange peeling, not liquid stuff? I will try to get the recipe posted in weighted measurements for exact accuracy.
Yes, I never sift flour unless the recipe specifies, and I made the recipe as written. The dough was too stiff to roll straight out of the fridge, but quickly became very soft and sticky. It was even sticking to my silicone baking mat.
Hello. May I ask a question? I was wondering if the butter will not melt and ruin the royal when the heat is intense? I am supposed to make cookie boxes, large ones, for an outdoor wedding. I live in a tropical country and our normal temperature is 33-35 degrees, high humidity. Thanks so much.
Hello Laureen! Just found your site while searching for cardamom sugar cookies! Do these freeze well? I need to make about 500 for my nieces wedding (and i an not a professional by any means – i just bake for holidays, birthdays etc). I had planned on making shortbread (decorated to look like apple tree blossom) but my sister (mother of bride) was thinking sugar cookies would be less “crumbly”. I plan on making the cookies 2 weeks prior to the wedding (freeze them) and then decorate them 4-5 days prior to – will the cookies still taste fresh enough? Thank you for any advice you can provide.
Hi Joan, These cookies freeze very well. I would do a trial run with them to make sure you like the flavour, although I’m sure you will. For such a big event its best to do a trial run. I would even decorate some to get your pattern perfected. 500 cookies, wow!!good luck
Is this sweet ambs recipe? Also I don’t see the pumpin recipe. Thank you
Hi Krissy, the sugar cookie recipe is my mom’s old basic sugar cookie recipe which I use as a base for adding a variety of flavours to such as lemon, pumpkin spice and even candy cane. The decorating technique for brush embroidery I used was based on the beautiful technique by SweetAmbs. Here’s the link to the Pumpkin Spice recipe https://www.artandthekitchen.com/2013/12/best-ever-sugar-cookies.html/