Cardamom Bun Cookies

Name: Cardamom Bun Cookies
Total time: 2 h 10 min
Yield: about 24 cookies
Ingredients: 2 ¼ cups all-purpose flour; ½ teaspoon baking powder; ¼ teaspoon kosher salt; ½ cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, softened; ¾ cup granulated sugar; 1 large egg, at room temperature; 2 ½ teaspoons pure vanilla extract, divided; ¼ cup red or green sanding sugar; 1 ½ teaspoons ground cardamom; 1 ¼ cups confectioners' sugar; 3 tablespoons whole milk; 2 tablespoons cream cheese, softened

7 Ratings
7 Reviews

These holiday cookies are your ticket to winning the holiday cookie swap. (Not that it's a competition, right?)

By John Somerall

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Credit: Caitlin Bensel

Recipe Summary

hands-on:

35 mins

total:

2 hrs 10 mins

Yield:

about 24 cookies

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This is the batch of holiday cookies to take to the annual cookie swap, thanks to their inviting pinwheel shape and crave-worthy cream cheese glaze. These pinwheel cookies are reminiscent of a cinnamon roll, but they borrow their warm spiced flavor from trendy Swedish cardamom buns. The key to nicely round and even cookies is freezing the log of dough before slicing, so make sure not to skip this crucial step. For other festive flavor profiles, replace the cardamom with pumpkin pie spice, apple pie spice, or classic cinnamon.

Directions

Step 1
Whisk flour, baking powder, and salt in a medium bowl. Beat butter and granulated sugar in a large bowl with an electric mixer on medium speed until light and fluffy, 3 to 4 minutes. Add egg and 2 teaspoons vanilla; continue beating, scraping down sides of bowl as needed, until incorporated, about 1 minute. Reduce speed to low and add flour mixture, beating until dough comes together, about 1 minute.

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Step 2
Shape dough into a rough ball. Roll out dough between 2 sheets of parchment paper into a 14-by-10-inch rectangle (1/8-inch thick). Stir together sanding sugar and cardamom in a small bowl. Remove top sheet of parchment and sprinkle dough with sanding sugar mixture. Working from longer side of rectangle, slowly and tightly roll dough into a log, using parchment to help lift and roll dough as you go. Wrap log in parchment and freeze until firm, about 30 minutes.
Step 3
Preheat oven to 350°F with racks in upper and lower thirds. Line 2 large, rimmed baking sheets with parchment paper. Remove log from freezer and slice crosswise into ½-inch-thick rounds. Transfer to baking sheets, leaving about 2 inches between cookies.
Step 4
Bake until lightly browned around edges, about 12 minutes. Let cookies cool on baking sheets for 5 minutes, then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.
Step 5
Beat confectioners' sugar, milk, cream cheese, and remaining ½ teaspoon vanilla in a small bowl until smooth. Drizzle glaze over cookies. Let glaze dry completely before storing cookies at room temperature in an airtight container for up to 5 days.

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Katy Mac

12/23/2021

I'm not sure what happened with everyone else, but mine came out perfect and delicious. I do weigh my ingredients rather than measure, but the flour to butter ratio was great. It was super easy to roll out the dough - very forgiving to slice and move around odd ends to make it a rectangle. I spread and the pressed my sugar/cardamom mix into the dough before rolling. I do recommend squishing the roll together a bit once they are on the cookie sheet, a few of my outer layers "fell open" but we just flipped and iced and not only are they pretty, but delicious. Next time I'll make half the icing. Good luck!

Real Simple Member

12/16/2021

Do not try this recipe! If I could give it less than one star I would. As all the other reviewers said, the dough is too dry and crumbly to roll up. A complete waste of time and ingredients.

Real Simple Member

12/12/2021

We agree with the previous reviews which speculate that there must be an error in the ingredient quantities somewhere. The dough comes out very dry and cracked with the quantities given in the recipe. We were able to make it come together and smooth out with the addition of several TBSPs of whole milk. But, it only got worse from there. We were skeptical about just sprinkling the seasoned sanding sugar on the rolled out dough, and then rolling it up into a log. But, that is what the recipe said, so that is what we did. When we took the log out of the freezer an hour later to cut the cookies, about 90% of the seasoned sugar mixture poured out with each slice. Strangely enough, our finished cookies looked quite a lot like the photo in the magazine. So, maybe that was supposed to happen!?! But, this brings us to our last, and most serious, critique of this recipe: The cardamom is only in the sanding sugar mixture, so the cookies end up tasting like a regular old sugar cookie.

Real Simple Member

12/12/2021

There has to be a mistake in this recipe. It’s either 2 sticks of butter instead of one, or half the flour. As written, the recipe doesn’t work. The dough is dry, crumbly and doesn’t come together.

Real Simple Member

12/11/2021

I agree with the other reviews, too much flour, dough wouldn’t come together.

Real Simple Member

12/11/2021

I only tried once, but the dough wouldn't roll up. It kept cracking and breaking. Disappointment!

Real Simple Member

11/24/2021

I tried this recipe twice and it failed twice. The dough was way too dry/crumbly to roll.

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Cardamom Bun Cookies

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Recipe Summary

Ingredients

Directions

Reviews (7)

All Reviews for Cardamom Bun Cookies

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Cardamom Bun Cookies

Gallery

Recipe Summary

Ingredients

Directions

Reviews (7)

All Reviews for Cardamom Bun Cookies