Cardamom is my favourite spice, and I will sneak it in anywhere and everywhere for a little extra brightness and herbal fragrance. My family, on the other hand, aren’t as keen, so I often have to tone it down and leave just a subtle nod in the background. When I want to be selfish, though, these are the biscuits I make; light, crumbly and positioning cardamom as the star it deserves to be.
Cardamom and chocolate biscuits
Be sure to grind the cardamom seeds fresh from their pods in a mortar for a significantly better flavour than using the pre-ground stuff.
Prep 20 mins, plus chilling
Cook 15 min
Makes 12 sandwich cookies
200g salted butter, softened
85g icing sugar
1 tsp cardamom, freshly ground
2 egg yolks
230g plain flour
80g cornflour
For the ganache
150g dark chocolate, finely chopped
200ml double cream
25g unsalted butter, softened
Cream the butter, sugar and cardamom for three to four minutes, until pale and creamy, then add the egg yolks and beat again to combine.
In a separate bowl, mix the flour and cornflour. Tip this into the butter mixture and mix until just combined. Wrap the dough in clingfilm and chill it for a few hours until firm.
Heat the oven to 200C (180fan)/390F/gas 6 and line two baking trays with baking paper. Roll out the chilled dough on a lightly floured surface and use a 6-7cm round cutter to stamp out discs. Reroll the dough once and cut out as many more discs as you can.
Bake the biscuits in batches for 11-13 minutes, until the edges are firm but the biscuits are still quite pale. Leave to cool completely on a wire rack.
Meanwhile, make the ganache. Put the chopped chocolate in a bowl and heat the cream in a small saucepan until steaming. Pour the hot cream over the chocolate, leave for 20 seconds, then stir until smooth. Mix in the butter until it melts, then let the ganache sit for 10-15 minutes to thicken a little.
Spoon the ganache into a piping bag, snip off the end and pipe some ganache on to half of your biscuits. Put another biscuit on top to make a sandwich and serve.
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