Lemon Cardamom Nisser Cookies

This is an iced Christmas cookie that I made because D is a little nisser-obsessed. If you aren't sure what the heck a nisse is, read this post: Glædelig Jul, Nisser, and Mormor Agnes’ Æbleskiver. In any case we have nisser galore around the house and I thought it would be a fun cookie to make.

I started with a Santa cookie cutter and trimmed down the pom-pom at the top of the hat because everyone's a critic. "That doesn't look like the profile of a nisse!" Oye.

Because of the nisser's Danish roots, I made a lemon-cardamom spiced sugar cookie as the base along with a lemon icing. The nose is a chocolate-covered salted caramel ball.

Ingredients

Lemon Cardamom Sugar Cookies

• 2-3/4 C flour
• 1 t baking powder
• 1 t salt
• 3/4 C butter, softened
• 1 C organic granulated sugar
• 2 eggs
• zest from 1 organic lemon (I used a Meyer lemon), approximately 2 t
• 1 t ground cardamom

Royal Icing

• 3 egg whites, or more to thin icing
• 6 C organic powdered sugar
• juice from 1 to 2 organic lemons (I used a Meyer lemon)
• 1/4 t pure vanilla extract

To Finish

• food dye (I used a natural dye)
• Also needed: any round candy that you can use as a nose

Procedure

Lemon Cardamom Sugar Cookies
Sift together flour and baking powder. Set aside in a bowl.

Beat butter and sugar until creamy. Add eggs, lemon zest, and cardamom. Mix well. Gradually add flour mixture, until completely combined.

Wrap dough in plastic wrap and chill dough for 1 to 2 hours. Roll out between two pieces of parchment paper.

Preheat over to 400 degrees F. Shape dough with your cutters, using flour to keep them from sticking. Place on a silicone mat-lined baking sheet and place in the freezer for 5 to 10 minutes to firm up.

Bake at 400 degrees F for 9-11 minutes, depending on size of cookies.

Cool completely on wire racks. Make the royal icing while the cookies cool.

Royal Icing

Beat the whites until stiff but not dry. Add sugar, vanilla extract, and lemon juice. Beat for another minute. If the icing is too thick, add more egg whites; if it's too thin, add more sugar. Divide the icing into two separate bowls. Dye one of the bowls whatever color you want for the hat; I made a light lilac shade. Leave the other bowl - for the beard - white.

To Finish

Smooth the colored royal icing over cooled cookies to make the hat. Cover the beard part of the cookie with the white icing.

Press a round candy between the hat and the beard to form the nose. Let icing set completely before serving.