Another week, another Tuesday with Dorie.  I don’t know where to begin in talking about this week’s recipe. I’ve had the book over 6 months now and I’m sure I passed by the Buttery Jam Cookies recipe a time or ten. But never did I give this one a second glance.  In hindsight it saddens me a great deal to know how many times I passed over these cookies.  I guess it’s a weirdness of mine that I like a picture of the finished product so I know what I’m aiming for.  Dorie doesn’t include a picture of the butter jam cookies alongside the recipe so that kinda put me off.  Hopefully my picture above will entice you… if not, I’m going to give it a try with my words!  If you’re looking for a cookie that’s both familiar and different at the same time… one that is versatile while being both contemporary and traditional at the same time… you’ve found the right one.  I chose to use orange marmalade and cardamom spice.  O-M-G!  These are faaaaaaaaaaaaantastic!  Whatever you’re doing tonight… it can wait for tomorrow because you really have to make these.  Tonight?  Yes tonight!  If necessary, stop at the market and buy the orange marmalade and ground cardamom spice on the way home from work just so you can make these cookies.  Holy mother of pearl, these really are just that good!

Dorie suggests using apricot jam and ground ginger.  Usually I have apricot jam on hand but I used the end of the jar a couple of weeks back when making the Linzer Sable cookies.  I toyed with the idea of using strawberry jam or cranberry jam but I didn’t want the red color.  I knew I had orange marmalade and since I find the combination of orange flavor with cardamom spice to be simply fabulous the decision practically made itself!  I followed the recipe exactly as written… no halving this week… only subbing the ground cardamom for the ground ginger, and the orange marmalade for the apricot jam. 

If you’re not familiar with cardamom, it’s a spice used quite often in baked goods.  I think perhaps mostly in the dough used for danishes.  I first was introduced to cardamom earlier this year when I was making danish braids and it was pretty much love at first bite :)  The flavor is a rather subtle but it gives a certain je ne sais quois that makes your taste buds very very happy!  I’ve tried making orange cardamom creme brulee and learned my lesson the hard way that while a little cardamom is lovely, a lotta cardamom not so much! LOL!!  So please, learn from my mistake and go easy on the cardamom – not so easy that you don’t get the flavor… but not so much that you seriously regret it.

These cookies are amazingly simple to make.  I can’t imagine them being any simpler since the ingredients are pretty much items you have on hand!  The dough came together easily and I found that baking for 12 minutes (rotating the pan half-way thru) was pretty much the perfect timing as they are nicely browned on the bottoms and only slightly browned around the edges.  Mine came out somewhat cakey… not at all crispy, not at all crunchy and definitely not at all chewy.  I really have to say these are my new favorite cookie!  I hope my family, friends and neighbors like them too because they surely will be in the holiday cookie-baskets I create this year!

Thanks to Heather of Randomosity and the Girl for choosing this week’s recipe. Big Big Thanks!!!  If you’d like the recipe be sure to visit Heather’s blog or buy a copy of Dorie Greenspan’s book Baking from My Home To Yours.  Please take a moment to check out the others who also bake Tuesday with Dorie – I’m betting they came up with some great flavor combinations as well :)

Have a delicious day!

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