Cardamom cookies are a snap!

Is it possible for someone — someone who doesn’t actually have a sweet tooth — to love ginger snaps as much as I do? The chewy inside, the crispy outside, the zing of the ginger, the mellow sweetness of the molasses. Cookie perfection, I tell ya!

In an effort to mix things up a bit this year, I went for it … I made the cardamom snaps I mentioned earlier this week in my cookie roundup post. You might think that someone like me, so resistant to change, so in love with ginger snaps, would have a hard time embracing a recipe that rewrote all that cookies mean to me, yet embrace it I did, and how!

While the recipe was nearly perfect in its own rite, you know how I do that darned healthy thing that I do … so of course I substituted this and that, cut way down on the sugar and ended up with a guilt-free recipe (if only it didn’t have calories!) that I’m proud to serve to my kid. When he gets old enough to realize that all of his treats growing up were actually good for him (or at least not detrimental to his health), I’m probably going to catch an earful!

Cardamom Snaps
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Inspired by Better Homes and Gardens’ Cardamom Snaps, made healthier by me

Ingredients:

• 3/4 cup organic butter
• 3/4 cup palm sugar
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 1/2 teaspoons cardamom
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1/4 cup organic blackstrap molasses
• 1 egg
• 2 1/4 cups spelt flour

For the coating, mix together:

• 1/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons turbinado sugar
• 3/4 teaspoon cardamom

Using your amazing KitchenAid stand mixer (or any other mixer you’d give your life to have forever), beat the butter until creamed, then add the palm sugar, baking soda, 1 1/2 teaspoons of cardamom and the cinnamon. When combined, beat in molasses and egg. Gradually beat in flour.

Here’s the fun part, the part that you definitely need a five-year-old helper for: Roll the dough into 1-inch balls, roll into the coating mixture and place 2 inches apart on ungreased cookie sheets.

This recipe makes 3-4 dozen cookies, depending on how much batter you snitch and how big your 1-inch balls really are. Mine seem to grow the more I make. This is starting to sound a little dirty, so bake at 375 degrees for 8-10 minutes, until set at the edges and cracked a little on top. Cool on a wire rack, and try not to eat them all at once.

Do you see the gorgeous turbinado sugar crystals sparkling in the photo? Don’t use anything else; they just won’t be as pretty. Are you daring enough to veer from the ginger snap tradition? You’ll be glad you did!

Clacked by Debbie McDuffee
on Dec 16, 2009 @ 10:00 EST5EDT