Blogger Cookie Exchange - Cardamom Ginger Cookies

 I was so excited to sign on to participate in The Great Food Blogger Cookie Swap because it meant I could connect with three other bloggers (most likely Canadian as shipping food across borders gets squicky in a post 9-11 world where xmas cookies are now eyed suspiciously ). It also meant that I would receive a dozen cookies from three of my fellow bloggers and that is always a great thing. I love eating other people's baked goods.

My favourite and most requested cookie is a really spicy, crispy ginger snap but I have written about that on my blog and we were instructed to make something that we have never blogged about so that meant I either had to make something completely different or change up my standard ginger snap. I have been pretty obsessed with cardamom for the last few months so I started searching out a yummy sounding cookie with cardamom but all I was seeing were sugar cookies with cardamom added to the dough and that didn't interest me at all. I don't really like overly sweet cookies, if that makes sense. I like super dark chocolate things, I like citrusy things and I like spicy things.

I was so happy to come across this recipe on tastespotting where the beautiful photo caught my eye and took me over to SPCookieQueen's blog. I didn't really change much at all, I just added some candied orange peel and used coarse sanding sugar to roll the cookies because the recipe sounded great as it was. I think she made huge cookies and I made them small like my ginger snaps - I find that when I am eating a really heavily spiced cookie, I only want a small one. Mine aren't as pretty as hers, maybe due to the small size and lack of big cracks in the surface but I think they turned out really great and I hope that Christina from wannafoodie , Katie from Adventures in Actuality and Amanda from The Vanilla Beanery  enjoyed them.

So, the very first batch of cookies to arrive came from Liliana at My Cookbook Addiction and they couldn't have come at a better time. For reasons unknown, I was awake from 1am until about 5:30 and then up again at 7:30 to get The Kid out the door and I was dying for a coffee and a little something sweet to pick me up. The door bell rang and there stood my angel wearing a Canada Post outfit holding a box of delicious biscotti for me! Thanks to Liliana! So far, they are the only cookies I have received but I am hoping my other two are just held up in the mail.

Cardamom Ginger Cookies

adapted from SPCookieQueen.com

about 48 cookies

2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon baking soda

2 teaspoons ground cinnamon

1 teaspoon ground cloves

1/2 teaspoon ground cardamom

1/2 teaspoon ground ginger

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 1/4 cups light brown sugar, loosely packed

1/3 cup vegetable oil

2 large eggs

3 tbls crystallized ginger, finely chopped

1/3 cup finely chopped candied orange peel

1/2 cup coarse sanding sugar + 1/2 teaspoon ground cardamom

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.

Line two cookie sheets with parchment paper or use silpats.

Sift flour, baking soda, cinnamon, cloves, 1/2 teaspoon cardamom, ground ginger and salt into a large bowl.  Set aside. 

Put the brown sugar and oil into a large bowl and mix till combined.  Add the eggs and beat for a minute with a hand mixer (or do all of this in your stand mixer but it's not really worth busting that out for these). Add the flour mixture, the ginger and orange peel and mix until combined.  

In a small bowl combine the sanding sugar and 1/2 teaspoon cardamom.  Set aside.

Scoop the dough into smallish balls (like a giant jaw breaker that is half the size of a golf ball) and roll in the sugar mixture.  Place the cookies on a baking sheet 3-inches apart. After you have filled a cookie sheet, flatten them a bit using the bottom of a glass.

Put one sheet on the middle rack and one below and  bake for 6 minutes and then switch the pans around and cook for another 6 minutes. Let cool for ten minutes on the pans before you remove them to a rack to cool completely.