Michelle Darmody: Cardamom spice is on the all-things-nice list

Whole cardamom pods or pre-ground, cardamom works in sweet as well as savour foods

Cardamom orange brownies are a deliciously grown-up treat to serve with coffee. 

Cardamom is one of my favourite spices. Its taste is difficult to pin down, but it always evokes a warm, cosy feeling with its sweet, citrusy, and floral notes. When using cardamom in cooking I generally add the pods whole or peel them and add the black seeds which are encased in the green shell. You can also buy pre-ground cardamom which is handy.

As a spice, cardamom is versatile as it works well in sweet as well as savoury foods. It is delicious stirred through porridge when it is bubbling in the pot or added to rice pudding. A pinch also adds a lift to banana bread or pancakes.

You can make a cardamom sugar and use it to dust over warm biscuits. Simply crush about 15 green cardamom pods, discard the shells and add the seeds to 100g of sugar and store in an airtight container.

The brownie recipe combines orange and cardamom with dark chocolate. Ideally, you could leave the baked brownie whole and only cut them to size before you are ready to eat them. There is a ½ tsp of cardamom used in this recipe as well as in the buns. You can increase this by a pinch or two more if you like a stronger flavour.

Cardamom baked apples with vanilla mascarpone

recipe by:Michelle Darmody

This simple dessert is always well-received

Servings

4

Preparation Time

 5 mins

Cooking Time

 20 mins

Total Time

 25 mins

Course

 Dessert

Ingredients

• 3 small cooking apples, roughly sliced

• 2 tbsp honey

• ½ tsp ground cinnamon

• 8 cardamom pods, lightly crushed

• 6 star anise

• For the vanilla mascarpone:

• 200g mascarpone cheese

• 3 tsp icing sugar

• 2 tsp vanilla

• ½ tbsp honey

Method

1. Preheat your oven to 180°C.

2. Place the apple slices on a large, flat ovenproof dish. Toss them in half of the honey and the spices. Bake for 15 minutes then drizzle on the rest of the honey. Bake for a further five minutes or so, until soft but still retaining a bite. Allow to cool in the dish.

3. Whisk all the ingredients for the mascarpone and place into the fridge until ready to serve.

4. Scoop the apples into four bowls making sure to get any of the juices from the dish. Serve warm with a dollop of the mascarpone.

Orange and cardamom brownies

recipe by:Michelle Darmody

You can make these a little ahead of time if you wish, as they will stay moist for a few days once sealed in a container.

Servings

12

Preparation Time

 10 mins

Cooking Time

 35 mins

Total Time

 45 mins

Course

 Dessert

Ingredients

• 180g dark chocolate, broken into small even-sized pieces

• 180g soft butter

• 3 eggs, lightly beaten

• 250g golden caster sugar

• 80g plain flour, sieved

• 40g cocoa powder, sieved

• ½ tsp ground cardamom, sieved

• the zest of an orange

Method

1. Preheat your oven to 170°C and line an 8-inch square tin with parchment.

2. Melt the chocolate and butter in a heavy-based saucepan over a low heat and set aside.

3. Whisk the eggs and sugar together until it has doubled in volume. You just want it to be pale in colour, not whisked to a stiff peak stage. Fold in the slightly cooled chocolate mixture. Add the flour, cocoa and cardamom and fold these in as well as the orange zest.

4. Scoop your mixture into the prepared tin and bake for about 35 minutes, until the top is cracked and there is no wobble left in the centre. It will also firm up a little more as it cools. Allow to cool completely in the tin and then cut to your desired size. Sieve some more cocoa powder over the brownies just before serving.