Cardamom Shortbread Cookies with Orange Glaze Recipe

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Cardamom shortbread cookies boast an exotic warm flavor, balanced with a sweet, citrusy orange glaze. The cookies are buttery, tender, and melt-in-your-mouth delicious!

A round plate with 3 cardamom shortbread cookies, a cup of coffee top right, and top left is a plate of cookies and a cut orange.

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What is Cardamom?
Ingredients
Step-by-Step Instructions
Variation
Recipe FAQs
Recommended Recipes
Recipe
Reviews

Cardamom shortbread cookies are excellent when you want something a little extra special. They make a delicious addition to an assorted cookie tray, and are perfect for a wedding or baby shower!

My family was a little suspicious of these cookies at first, but after one bite, my husband exclaimed, "These cookies are crave-worthy!" Once you taste them, I am sure you will agree! My kids would eat a whole tray of these cookies if I would let them!

If you are adding these to a Christmas cookie tray, consider these other delightful cookies as well:

What is Cardamom?

Cardamom is a warm spice, with a strong, sweet flavor. It has a hint of citrus and herbs. The seed pods come from a plant closely related to the ginger and turmeric families. This spice is the main ingredient in chai, so if you like chai tea, you will love these cookies!

Cardamom can be found already ground, but I like to use freshly ground cardamom for the best flavor. Once it is ground, the oils start to dissipate, which weakens the flavor of the cardamom.

I found cardamom pods in the spice section of my local grocery store, but if you have trouble locating them they can also be ordered through Amazon.

Spice grainder with finely ground cardamom.

Ingredients

See the recipe card at the bottom of this post for the full list of ingredients, including measurements.

This recipe follows very closely with the formula for traditional shortbread cookies, which crumble as you bite into them, and then almost melt in your mouth.

The addition of the cardamom brings an unexpected warmth, and the orange glaze balances the cookie with a bright sweetness. Plus, it looks gorgeous!

Cardamom: Freshly grind your cardamom for the best flavor. You can use just the seeds inside the pod or grind the whole pod. There isn't a flavor difference with either method.
Confectioner's Sugar: We use confectioner's sugar (also known as powdered sugar or icing sugar) versus granulated sugar in this recipe because it has cornstarch in it. This makes the cookies less crisp and more tender.
Butter: Soften your butter to room temperature so that it creams with the sugar! I use salted butter, but if you prefer to use unsalted then just add ½ teaspoon of salt to your recipe.
All-Purpose Flour: The standard ratio for traditional shortbread is 1 part sugar, 2 parts butter, and 3 parts flour. This works beautifully for simple cookies, but the dough will spread as you cook it. I have added a little more flour to this recipe so that the dough will hold its shape as it bakes, but not too much, so it still feels like a shortbread cookie when you take a bite.

Step-by-Step Instructions

1) Cream Butter

Use butter that is softened, but not melted.
Cream the butter with powdered sugar until it is smooth.
The butter should be fully mixed in without chunks, but you do not want it to be as fluffy as when you make other types of cookies. Minimizing the air pockets helps produce a classic, dense shortbread.

Bowl of butter and sugar creamed together.

2) Stir in Flour and Cardamom

Once the flour and cardamom are added in, mix on low speed until the dough starts to come together. The mixture will still be crumbly, but it will be in large chunks instead of small crumbs.
It is important to mix the flour and cardamom in gently without adding too much air to the dough.

3) Refrigerate

Think about your dough like butter (after all, that is a large part of what this dough is made of). If you touch soft butter then it will stick all over your hands. But you cannot roll out a stick of hard butter. The same is true for this dough. You want it to be cold enough that it isn't sticky, but not too cold.
Form the dough into a disk and refrigerate it for 30 minutes before it is rolled out. If it gets too soft while you are rolling it out, stick it back in the refrigerator for a little bit.

4) Roll and Cut

Roll the dough ½-inch thick, then cut using your favorite dough cutter.
Gather the remaining dough and roll it out again, until all of the dough has been used. Remember, you can refrigerate your dough again if it gets too warm.
Use a small spatula to transfer the dough cutouts onto a parchment-lined plate and freeze them for 10-15 minutes before baking.
Freezing before baking allows the butter to harden so that the sugar and flour begin to bake before the butter melts. This keeps the dough from spreading too much.

Cut outs of dough using scalloped square cutter.

5) Bake

Shortbread is cooked at 325°F which is a lower temperature than most other cookies.
This low temperature helps the cookies to cook all of the way through without browning too much. You want the cookies to just begin to turn golden.
This lower temperature also helps contribute to the wonderful shortbread texture, as it controls how the butter melts into the starch.

6) Glaze (Optional)

Once the cookies have cooled completely, whisk together powdered sugar, orange juice, and milk.
The glaze can be drizzled over the top of the cookies, but I like to cover the entire top surface of the cookie by dipping them.
Gently place a cookie top-down into the glaze, then remove the cookie and let it drip. Turn the cookie over and set it on a plate or cooling rack.
Wait to stack the cookies until the glaze has completely dried. Otherwise, they will stick together.

Variation

If you want a simpler shortbread you can also slice the dough instead of rolling and cutting!
Simply roll the dough into a log.
Refrigerate the log for at least an hour. When you are ready to bake, slice the dough into ½-inch disks.

Cookie dough rolled into a tube and sliced into round cookies.

Recipe FAQs

What's the difference between a shortbread cookie and a butter cookie?

Shortbread usually has more flour than a butter cookie, making them more delicate and tender. Butter cookies are also baked at a higher temperature than shortbread cookies.

What about sugar cookies? What's the difference?

Sugar cookies have more sugar and flour than shortbread and butter cookies and less butter making them sturdier cookies. They are ideal when you want to cut out fancy designs.

How do you store Cardamom Shortbread cookies?

Shortbread cookies can be stored in an airtight container at room temperature for 7 days, in the refrigerator for 10 days, or in the freezer for up to 4 months.

Can I use already ground cardamom?

Freshly ground cardamom is much more potent than cardamom that is already ground. I have not tested this recipe with pre-ground cardamom, and recommend that you use freshly ground, if possible.

A row of 3 cardamom cookies, with orange zest and cardamom sprinkled around, and an orange poking into the top left corner.

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