The third cookie I made for Christmas (which, yes, I realize was 3 weeks ago, I’ve got a bit of a backlog of posts to write) was these lovely little fluffy cardamom-flavoured nuggets. I think cardamom might be my favourite sweet spice – and I know it’s not only for sweet stuff, but in a sweet context, it’s a favourite. Pretty sure cumin is my favourite savoury spice, in case you’re wondering. Anyway, these little bites are small and fairly light in the mouth, and the icing has a deliciously prominent vanilla flavour, and it’s got sprinkles, so you can’t really go wrong. Well, unless you don’t want to buy ground cardamom. It is expensive. I’ll cop to that. But I had bought some to make something down at Matt’s mom’s house once, and I told her she could keep it, but she had given it back to me because she didn’t have much need for it. So I was fortunate enough to have some hanging around. The buttermilk is in both the cookies and the icing, but I didn’t find that the whole thing had any pronounced buttermilk flavour. Maybe it does. I can’t really tell.

I got this recipe from Sugarcrafter, but I had to guess on one point – she talked about adding the “buttermilk and flour mixture.” I had to assume she meant add the buttermilk, and also add the flour mixture, as opposed to adding a mixture that already included both flour and buttermilk. What I did worked, so either my interpretation was right, or it doesn’t matter. But you know what does matter? Commas!

Cardamom Buttermilk Cookies with Vanilla Icing

Ingredients

for the cookies
1/2 cup sugar
1/4 cup butter (one stick)
1 egg
1 1/4 cups flour
1/4 tsp baking soda
1 tsp ground cardamom
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 cup + 1 tbsp buttermilk (not separated, but there’s no more sensible way of describing the amount you need than that)

for the icing
2 cups icing sugar
3 tbsp buttermilk
1 tsp vanilla

Method

for the cookies
Preheat the oven to 375.
Grease a cookie sheet.
Using a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cream together the butter and sugar.
Beat in the egg.
In a separate bowl, whisk together the flour, cardamom, baking soda, and salt.
Stir the buttermilk into the wet ingredients in the stand mixer bowl.
Stir in the dry ingredients until just combined.
Scoop tablespoon-sized balls of dough onto the baking sheet.
Throw it in the oven for 10 – 12 minutes.
Let them cool completely on a rack before icing them.

for the icing
While the cookies are baking, or more likely while they’re cooling, make the icing.
Beat together all three ingredients until smooth.
Drizzle over the cookies.
Sprinkle with sprinkles!