Here is my Finnish mother inlaw's recipe for Gingerbread Cookies! It is hard to duplicate them just like hers because their ingredients taste different and they have a lot of different flours and different syrup too. These are still really good with the crushed cardamom! Enjoy! Julie J

Finnish Gingerbread Cookies

1 ¼ cup sugar
1 ½ cup dark Karo syrup (not brown sugar Karo syrup)
4 tsp. crushed cardamom (not ground**)
1 large orange (grated peel only)
1 ½ tsp. cloves
3 ½ tsp. ginger
3 ½ tsp. cinnamon
2 sticks butter (1 cup)
½ cup whipping cream
8 cups flour
2 eggs
2 tsp. baking soda

Put the sugar and the next 6 ingredients in a pot on the stove and stir until it boils. Turn off heat and add butter and stir until melted. Cool for a while on the stove and stir in cream when it is still warm.

Add baking soda to flour and sift. Transfer contents of pot on stove to a pretty large bowl. Add flour and egg gradually with a mixer until a dough forms. Cut into 6 pieces and wrap in plastic wrap after shaping into a rectangle. Chill overnight. Roll out between 2 sheets of white parchment paper (approx. 16 inches long) that fit on a cookie sheet. Cut out gingerbread and bake at 375 degrees for about 6 or 7 minutes on the sheet you rolled them out on. Store in airtight tin can.

P.S. I put my dough in the freezer for about 2 months before Christmas for added flavor, and then I can bake one or two packs at a time, instead of trying to do the whole recipe right at Christmas!

Enjoy! These are much better rolled out really thin and baked crispy!

** I bring home crushed cardamom from Finland, and you can only buy whole pods of cardamom or ground cardamom in the U.S. You can make it with ground cardamom, but I don't think you will get the same bite of flavor with the ground that you do with the crushed cardamom. You bite into the seeds and get a nice burst of flavor with the crushed cardamom. You can order cardamom seeds online without the green pod, and crush them in a coffee grinder until they have a sand-like consistency. The crushed cardamom feels like sand. I've tried taking the green pod off the whole pod of cardamom and it was such a task, that I would order the seeds online! Enjoy!