On the 3rd day of Christmas, my true love gave to me, an orange cardamom shortbread cookie!

Shortbread, yum. One of my favorite kinds of cookies! Short dough is a dough that can be a bit crumbly at times. It has a higher fat ratio than most doughs & is often mixed together by hand to avoid developing gluten. The opposite would be ‘long dough’, or a dough that has elasticity & stretches. Short dough is used as a crust for tarts, meant to melt in your mouth, and of course for delicious shortbread cookies!!

These cookies are flavored with some of my absolute favorite ingredients, especially as a combo…orange & cardamom:) If you aren’t familiar with cardamom, it is one of the delicious flavors in Chai Tea. You might also recognize it from middle eastern dishes. It is synonymous with Indian cuisine and even used in a lot of eastern medicine. The orange used in the cookies is the form of zest, which holds all of the citrus oil. Citrus oil=maximum flavor! When you want to impart any kind of citrus flavor into a baked good, the zest is the best way. Extra flavor, as well as no extra liquid. Adding liquid to baked goods can throw off the formula, so being able to get the flavor in without adding any is perfect!

I dipped these guys into dark chocolate, hopefully they held up! I put them in day 3 with my fingers crossed, ha!! The recipe is below. It’s easy, makes a bunch, the dough freezes well, what more could you want?!!! Enjoy!!