I fell in love with cardamom a few years ago when I started drinking chai and have found it’s also lovely in baked goods. While perusing the fridge this weekend for something to satisfy my sweet tooth, I noticed the low-sugar orange marmalade my hubby enjoys and was inspired to make cookies flavored with orange and cardamom!
I’m a huge fan of bar cookies since they come together so quickly and decided to spice a simple sugar cookie dough with orange zest and cardamom. The bars made our place smell so good as they were baking. After they cooled I spread melted orange marmalade on top and then topped that layer with a chocolate ganache. They’re quite tasty and the cardamom really comes through. It you haven’t baked with cardamom before, I’d suggest starting with 1/2 teaspoon for the batch and then adding more if you end up liking it as much as I do! I’m desperately trying to distract myself right now, so I won’t end up eating another one!
Orange Cardamom Chocolate Bars
Printable Recipe
Ingredients:
1/2 cup butter, softened
3/4 cup sugar
1 egg
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon ground cardamom
1 tablespoon finely grated orange zest
1/2 cup orange marmalade, melted
3/4 cups semisweet chocolate chips
1/4 cup heavy whipping cream
Directions:
Heat oven to 350˚F. Grease an 8×8-inch square pan. In a large bowl, cream butter and sugar together. Mix in egg and vanilla; stir in flour, salt, baking powder, cardamom, and orange zest until soft dough forms. Spread dough in bottom of a greased pan. Bake 20 to 23 minutes or until golden brown. Cool completely, about 30 minutes.
Spread melted marmalade evenly over cooled bars. Refrigerate about 15 minutes or until marmalade is set.
In small microwavable bowl, microwave chocolate chips and heavy whipping cream uncovered on high 1 minute, stirring once after 30 seconds, until melted. Spread evenly over marmalade layer. Refrigerate about 1 hour or until chocolate ganache is set. Cut into 4 rows by 4 rows. Makes 16 bars.
Nutrition: 214 calories, 10.1g fat, 0.9g fiber, 2.1g protein per serving
Cost: $3.75 total
Cake, Batter, and Bowl features my original recipes for quick, healthy, and inexpensive weeknight meals and indulgent weekend treats. Enjoy!
These sound and look amazing. I love cardamom too. It is my fave spice and I am always trying to find ways to use it. I also love bar cookies because they are easier. Great recipe!
you know, i’ve never tried cardamom before!!! i know i need to!
waw,….Kerstin: they look fabulous!!! I love cardamom combined with orange!! yummie!!
What a great pairing. I havent had that combination before. It sounds wonderful and they look fantastic.
Chocolate and orange is one of my favorite flavor combinations. I love that you added cardamom, it sounds great. I also love bar cookies, it’s so much easier than waiting for a bunch of batches of cookies to bake.
The title of this bars enough to make my mouth water. Delicious!
These really look interesting. I just bought some cardamom pods but haven’t used them. I like bar cookies as well for their ease and convenience. I may just make these.
Yum! I love cardamom too – what a wonderful spice. So nice with orange, too.
I love chai, but I’ve never had cardamom on it’s own. These sound delicious! I have to tell you that I made your black bean soup last night and it was AMAZING!!!! SOOOOOO delicious! I’ll blog about it soon
I love cardamom, too, and discovered it from drinking Chai! I bet these smelled amazing cooking, a great flavor combo!
Whooaaaa… looks so yummy!
Everyone raves about cardamom so I’ve been wanting to use it but haven’t gotten my hands on any yet. But orange + chocolate sounds yummy enough on its own!
Oh my. I could eat 1 or 2 of these tasty bars. I like the cardamom and orange combination.
These bars sound fantastic. I love orange and cardamom and chocolate! Putting them together is totally genius!! I can’t wait to try out the recipe. These bars look so delicious.
There is just something so comfortingly delicious about a bar cookie, isn’t there? Mmmmm
Cardamom is a wonderful spice and these bars sound amazing with orange and chocolate and cardamom flavor! Wonderful!
Orange and chocolate – what an awesome combo!
These sound great – I love Chai but other than some very minor dabbling in curries haven’t used cardamom much for anything, the smell of it is so tantalizing though I’m sure it’s delicious in baked goods. I’ll have to test these out!
Ohhhh, I love love love cardamom – I’m swooning right now…
Your cookies look amazing – the mixture of cardamom, chocolate, and orange is pure genius!
Oh my..I bet your house DID smell amazing!!!
Orange cardamon? These are right up my alley. They sound and look delicious.
The orange and cardamom sound great, and the chocolate topping looks fantastic!
Yum, cardamom! and I love the chocolate topping!
I love chocolate and orange together, very nice!!
These bars look awesome! Creative recipe!
These look beautiful too. I don’t cook much with cardamom but I think I would love it!!!!!!
Ive never heard of it before , I can’t wait to check it out, thanks!! ♥ LA
oh my gosh, do i LOVE cardamom!!!! i can’t get enough
especially with mango… these bars sound AMAZING kerstin 
K, THAT is very, very inspiring. I love cardamom with citrus…the bakery where I used to work always did cardamom/orange, cardamom/meyer lemon, and cardamom/grapefruit tarts. The addition of chocolate is so DUH!
hi, thanks for visiting my blog. I clicked through and saw this… YUM! i love the layering of the marmalade and chocolate on top.
Wow … really great combo of flavors Kerstin! Very sophisticated and elegant actually. Would be great for a party … hmmmmmmm … now you’ve got my wheels turning!
These have my mom’s name written all over them!
Great job with these. I love bar cookies and never make regular cookies.
I bought cardamom a few months ago but have yet to bake with it. I REALLY need to give these a try. Thanks for sharing!
~ingrid