🎄 LG,BE’s 12 Days of Christmas🎄

DAY 6

Christmas cookies hold a special place in my heart. My mom, the ultimate baker, would always take the time to bake jam thumbprints, chocolate shortbread, or if we were super lucky, Polish Rogaliki (my absolute favourite without a doubt) over the Christmas break. As kids, we would visit our family friends in Huntsville, ON and decorate sugar cookies with all the different coloured icing and bulk-barn decorations sprawled out around 4 kids.

So whatever it is, when someone tells me they’re going to do some baking for the holidays, my insides get soft and fuzzy and I can’t help but be envious. There was no way I was going to do 12 days of Christmas without sharing some baking!

I really wanted a cookie that would puff up slightly and almost become airy instead of crisp and crumbly & truthfully, ever since playing around with cardamom in some fall baking, I’ve really wanted to use it again! Hence, these delightfully little softies.

INGREDIENTS

• 1/2 cup of unsalted butter, softened
• 1/2 cup of white sugar
• 1/2 cup of brown sugar
• 1 egg, room temperature
• 1/2 tsp of vanilla extract
• 1 tsp of ground cardamom
• 1 tbsp of fresh grated orange zest
• 1 3/4 cups of all purpose flour
• 1/3 cup of milk
• 1 tsp baking powder
• pinch of salt

ICING

• 1 1/2 cups of powdered sugar
• 1 tbsp of freshly squeezed orange juice
• 1/4 tsp of ground cardamom

In a large bowl using a paddle attachment and electric mixer, beat together the softened butter and both types of sugar for about 10 minutes, scraping down the bowl every few minutes. Do this until your mixture becomes light yellow and much more fluffier.

TIP: This process is called creaming and is super important for any baking that calls for it since you’re essentially looking to build a stable and smooth emulsion between the butter and sugar that will not only give your cookie/baked good some lift, but will also ensure the sugar is properly distributed.

Next, add the egg, cardamom, orange zest and vanilla extract until the egg is incorporated. You’ll start to smell that orange pretty soon after that! In a separate bowl, whisk the flour, baking powder and salt together. Alternate between the flour mixture and milk as you blend that to form the dough for the cookies. Again, use a spatula to scrape down the sides of the bowl if needed. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and stick in the fridge to chill for about 25-30 minutes.

Preheat the oven to 350ºF at this time, and get started on your glaze mixture. In a small bowler, combine the powdered sugar, orange juice and cardamom together until you form a lump-free barely runny glaze. Add more powdered sugar by a tablespoon if you find it becomes too runny – but keep in mind this will also set shortly after its drizzled on the cookies. Place in the fridge for the time being.

Portion out the doughs into balls and play on a baking tray with parchment, spacing them out evenly. Bake for 12 minutes, and check them for doneness with the good ol’ toothpick trick: stick it in and if the dough is still wet when you pull it out, bake for another few minutes until the edges become nicely browned and the cookie has risen to form a small dome. Remove the cookies and place them on a wire rack to cool off.

When the cookies are completely cool, transfer them to a piece of parchment and again, space them out. For the icing, spoon it into a plastic ziploc bag and cut a small tip off of the bottom corner of the bag to create a makeshift piping bag. Drizzle fun patterns over the cookies and allow the glaze to set before transferring them back to the wire rack. Store them in an airtight container and eat within a week.
Hope you guys enjoy! Peace and good eats, -A❁