White chocolate cardamom shortbread cookies are buttery melt in your mouth spiced shortbread cookies. They have a big hit of my favorite baking spice - cardamom - which goes so well with the white chocolate that the cookies are dipped into before decorated with sprinkles. Made with Burlap & Barrel Cloud Forest Cardamom from my Fikabröd Box Scandinavian Christmas baking box.
I always have a huge list of Christmas cookies I want to make when the holiday season rolls around and I never end up getting to all on my list. I can't ever bring myself to baking for the holidays in the middle of summer. I end up cramming in as many recipes as I can before Christmas and I had to get these cardamom shortbread cookies posted for you all since they are so good.
This was inspired by my Vanilla Cardamom Cookies as well as the other shortbread cut out cookies I make for the holidays.
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Ingredients
I use a basic 3:2:1 shortbread cookie recipe ratio for the flour, butter and sugar. This is similar to a German Mürbeteig shortcrust dough which is uses for tarts, pastries and cut out cookies. It results in a tendery buttery crumb. And a great base for a variety of cookies.
- All Purpose Flour
- Unsalted Butter - cold, cubed
- Granulated Sugar - you can add in some vanilla sugar as well.
- Egg Yolks - save the whites for pavlova or meringues
- Lemon Zest
- Cardamom - I used Burlap & Barrel Cloud Forest Cardamom
- Vanilla
- Salt
See recipe card for quantities.
Instructions
The cardamom shortbread cookie dough is made using a food processor. This is a more of a shortcrust shortbread dough than a traditional cooking dough - no need to thaw butter and it comes together really quickly.
Add the flour, sugar, salt, cardamom and lemon zest to the food processor and pulse a few times until combined.
Add in the yolks and vanilla and pulse again.
Add in the cold butter cubes and pulse until the butter is fully incorporated.
The dough will be like crumbly wet sand.
Dump the dough into a bowl to knead it together.
Knead until you get a ball of dough that sticks together - you want to do this quickly so the heat from your hands doesn't melt the butter.
Divide the dough into two discs and wrap with plastic wrap. Chill for 2 hours. I love the Cardamom from Burlap & Barrel - you can see all the specks in the dough from the cardamom.
I use a 3 inch star cookie cutter for these. You can use whatever you like.
I freeze the dough first then pop the shapes out so they are easier to handle and the shape doesn't stretch out like it would if the dough was softer.
These cookies are amazing as is or you can dip in melted white chocolate.
Melt the chocolate in a double boiler or microwave then pour into a shallow bowl wide enough to place the cookies
Place the dipped cookies on a wax paper lined baking tray - chill to set the chocolate.
Hint: Use a good quality white chocolate - one with cocoa butter in it. So it will melt nicely and stay melted. I don't suggest using chocolate chips but if that is all you have access to then it will work ok.
Shortbread Variations:
The basic recipe for the shortbread dough is a great start to a variety of cookies.
- Spices - You can make these with cinnamon, nutmeg, pumpkin pie spice - really anything is great
- Vanilla - Bump up the vanilla flavor with vanilla sugar or vanilla bean paste
- Chocolate - you could use dark or milk chocolate instead of the white.
Equipment:
Food scale - You have to use a food scale for these cookies to come out right. I emphasize this in all of my baking posts.
Food Processor - the dough is pulsed together with a food processor to make more of a shortcrust pastry dough than a traditional cookie dough. This is what makes these cookies so tender.
Storage:
Store the cookies in an airtight container at room temperature up to a week or in the freezer up to three months.
Top tip:
Thes stay freshest the longest kept in the freezer.
Weighing ingredients Vs using cups:
I use my food scale and weigh out ingredients in grams because this is the most accurate way to get the best quality baked goods. Cups aren't accurate because not only are all cups not the same the sizes vary from brand to brand as well as from different countries. I have done tests with different brands of measuring cups and they all came out with different weights after I did the spoon and level as well as scoop method and then weighed in grams.
Baking is a science and science needs accuracy. Weighing is accurate and precise. Not to mention a lot easier. Another issue with cups is that I have no control over how people use measuring cups to measure dry ingredients especially flour. You could pack in way too much which would result in a sub-par baked good. Too much flour could throw everything off. Same with not enough. Not to mention also some ingredients are difficult to measure in cups such as nuts, dried fruit, chocolate etc. This is why weighing in grams is the most accurate.
I also use grams for most liquid measure since 100 grams equals 100 ml of water. Smaller amounts of items measured in teaspoons I usually leave as teaspoons, tablespoons are sometimes listed in grams as well but for the most part the different tablespoons I have used have all resulted in the same amount. Aside from cute, decorative ceramic tablespoons and teaspoons are never accurate. Those are better as decoration than for being used for baking.
More Shortbread Cookie Recipes:
Looking for other shortbread cookies recipes like this? Try these:
Recipes with Cardamom:
A few more recipes using cardamom:
White Chocolate Cardamom Shortbread Cookies Recipe
Equipment
- Food Scale
- Food Processor
- Plastic Wrap
- Baking sheets
- parchment paper
- Wire cooling rack
- Wax paper
Ingredients
- 300 g all purpose flour
- 100 g sugar
- 1 ½ Tablespoons ground cardamom
- 2 teaspoons lemon zest
- ½ teaspoon kosher salt
- 2 large egg yolks
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 200 g unsalted butter,, cold, cut into cubes
- For decorating:
- 200 G white chocolate,, good quality with cocoa butter
- 1 teaspoon coconut oil
- Sprinkles
Instructions
- Combine the flour, sugar, cardamom, lemon zest and salt in a food processor and pulse until combined. Add in the yolks and vanilla and pulse again. Next add in the butter cubes and pulse until the dough looks like wet sand.
- Transfer the dough to a mixing bowl and knead with your hands until the dough comes together - working quickly so your hands don’t melt the butter.
- Divide the dough into two pieces, shape into discs and wrap in plastic wrap. Chill at least two hours up to overnight.
- When ready to bake heat oven to 350 Deg F ( 180 C) and set the rack to the upper third - this is so the cookies bake but the bottoms don’t brown too fast. Line baking sheets with parchment paper.
- Roll out the cookie dough between two pieces of wax paper to just under ¼ inch (5 mm) thick. Cut out with desired cutter shapes ( I suggest no bigger than a 3 inch (76mm) cutter). Freeze the dough for a few minutes then pop out the cut out shapes and place an inch or so apart on the prepared baking sheets.
- Bake for 10-12 minutes until the cookies are set but are still pale - you don’t want the bottom edges to brown.
- Let cool for a minute then cool completely on a wire rack before dipping into chocolate.
- Melt the chocolate either in a bowl set over a pan of simmering water or in a microwave safe bowl. Stir until melted then stir in the coconut oil until well mixed in.
- Transfer the chocolate to a bowl wide enough to fit the cookies - dip the tops swirling a little in the chocolate then let the excess drip off. You can also swirl the tops with a thin decorating spatula. Sprinkle holiday sprinkles over one half of the cookies ( or however you want to do it). Set on a wax paper lined baking tray and freeze until the chocolate is set.
- Store in an airtight container either at cool room temperature or in the freezer.
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