I participated in the Third Annual Great Food Blogger cookie swap this year and am very excited to share my experience with you again this year.

In the past year I have found that one of my favorite spices is Cardamom. For those of you who do not know what Cardamom is it is a spice native to the Middle East and is one of the main spices in Chai Tea. I love it. I think it’s best described as warm and floral. With all that in mind, I decided to make some Cardamom cookies for the Great Food Blogger Cookie Swap. I found a recipe online that I liked and I adapted it some but not too much. You can go here and see the original recipe.

Christmas Cardamom Cookies

• 1/2 cup  butter
• 1/4 cup  unsweetened apple sauce
• 1 1/2 cups  granulated sugar
• 1 teaspoon  baking soda
• 1 teaspoon  cream of tartar
• 1 teaspoon  ground cardamom
• 1/8 teaspoon  kosher salt
• 3 eggs
• 1/2 teaspoon  homemade vanilla
• 3 cups  all-purpose flour

For the icing:

• 1/4 cup  butter
• 1 cup  powdered sugar
• 2 tablespoons  milk

Directions

1.In a small saucepan melt 1/2 cup butter over medium heat until it’s liquid consistency. Continue cooking until butter turns light golden brown, stirring occasionally. Transfer to a small bowl. Cover and chill until slightly firm. I put it in the refrigerator for about 45 minutes. It wasn’t completely solid it was just thicker.

2.In a large mixing bowl beat browned butter and apple sauce with an electric mixer on medium to high speed for 30 seconds. Add granulated sugar, baking soda, cream of tartar, cardamom, and 1/8 teaspoon salt. Beat until combined. Make sure you scrape the sides of the bowl so you don’t miss any of the goodness. Beat in the eggs one at a time and vanilla until combined. Add the flour one cup at time. Using a wooden spoon, stir in any remaining flour. The dough will be a little sticky and that’s ok. Cover and chill for 2-3 hours or until dough is easy to handle.

3.Preheat oven to 300 degrees F. Shape dough into walnut size balls. Place balls 2 inches apart on ungreased cookie sheet with parchment paper on it. These cookies spread so make sure they have room to do that. I wouldn’t put more than 9 balls to a cookie sheet.

4.Bake for 19 to 20 minutes or until edges are set (do not let edges brown). Cool on cookie sheet for 2 minutes. Transfer to a wire rack; cool. Allow your cookies to cool completely.

5.For glaze, in a small saucepan allow the 1/4 cup of butter to melt. Continue cooking until butter turns a light golden brown, stirring occasionally. Transfer to a small mixing bowl. Mix in powdered sugar, and the 2 tablespoons of milk, until smooth with a wooden spoon or silicon spatula. If necessary, beat in additional milk until glaze reaches drizzling consistency. Drizzle glaze over cookies. Let stand until glaze is set.

**I didn’t drizzle my icing over because it didn’t look pretty. I poured my icing into a piping bag with a #3 frosting tip on it and then just squiggled the icing on. I even drew a snowflake on a few of them**

These cookies are soft and chewy and the flavor is so good! They will make a great cookie for your cookie swap this month or to give as a gift to the ones you love! If you plan to ship them, layer them between wax or parchment paper before you do so that they don’t stick to each other.

I shipped my cookies in some cute green boxes and added a kitchen towel and a countdown chalkboard as well.

I received Oatmeal Cookies from Kim at Design + Life + Kids. They were SO good! She suggested that I put them in the freezer and then eat them. The Mister and I had a few that came out of the freezer but they were so good, they didn’t really last that long.

My second delivery of cookies was from Pam over at The Patriotic Pam that were all the same dough base but with different add-ins. They were chocolate chip, mint chocolate chip and mini M&M’s. Her packaging for her cookies was so beautiful.

I loved the ribbon so much that I repurposed it for a wreath that is hanging on my front door now.

When my final package of cookies arrived I was so excited and sad all at the same time because the third package meant that all the cookies were done arriving.

My final package came from Beth at It’s Good To Be The Cook. She sent Chai Egg Nog cookies. They were delicious! I can prove they were delicious because The Mister said he liked them A LOT and the man doesn’t even like the words egg and nog together.

Thank you to all my cookie swap senders. I thoroughly enjoyed all your cookies. I am already looking forward to next years swap. Thank you to Lindsay over at Love and Olive Oil and Julie at The Little Kitchen for hosting another successful swap. It was so much fun!

~Mrs Galvan~