Cardamom and hazelnut snowballs and another goodbye

These past few days have been about more than Christmas baking: yesterday I said goodbye to a bunch of criminals that I held close to my heart for seven seasons.

It was the perfect ending for the perfect ride – nothing less than what I expect. Great acting, great writing, and it is a pity that Sons of Anarchy was never on the radar of the big award shows, except for the Golden Globe that Katey Sagal took home in 2011 (and she really deserved it).

I cried like a baby while watching the episode, so much that my husband grabbed me a tissue (“what are you watching that is making you cry like that?”, he asked) – I guess I wasn’t ready for another goodbye so soon.

Baking is such therapy for me that I usually go to the kitchen when I’m feeling a little blue, but to be honest I was so devastated after watching the finale of one of my all time favorite TV shows that I did not feel like cooking at all, not even dinner – luckily I had baked these delicious cookies the day before and now I can share them with you.

Cardamom and hazelnut snowballs
slightly adapted from Bon Appétit magazine

2 ½ cups (350g) all-purpose flour
finely ground seeds of 12 cardamom pods
¼ teaspoon ground cinnamon
¼ teaspoon table salt
1 ½ cups (210g) powdered sugar, divided use
generous 1 cup (110g) sliced hazelnuts
1 cup (2 sticks/226g) unsalted butter, room temperature
1 tablespoon vanilla extract

Preheat the oven to 180°C/350°F. Line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper.

Whisk first 4 ingredients in a medium bowl. Combine ½ cup (70g) sugar and hazelnuts in a food processor; pulse until coarse meal forms. Using an electric mixer, beat butter and vanilla in a medium bowl until creamy, 2–3 minutes. Add nut mixture; beat to blend. Add dry ingredients; blend well (dough will be moist but still crumbly). Transfer to a work surface; knead to form a ball, about 4 turns.

Measure 1 leveled tablespoon of dough per cookie and form into a ball. Place 2.5cm (1in) apart on prepared sheets.
Bake, one sheet at a time, until bottoms are golden, 12–15 minutes. Sift remaining 1 cup powdered sugar into a shallow wide bowl. Working in batches of about 8 cookies each, roll warm cookies gently in powdered sugar to coat. Transfer to a wire rack to let cool. Dust cooled cookies with powdered sugar.

These cookies can be store in an airtight at room temperature for up to 5 days.

Makes about 50