Swedish Christmas Cookies

Every December I get emails from Food Network.  It's their annual 12 Days of Cookies news letter.  Love it!  I love getting new cookie recipes.  I save all my cookie emails.  There's a "Cookies" folder in my Hotmail account, serisouly.  :)

These cookies arrived a few years ago among the baker's dozen Food Network sent out.  They are one of my mom's favorite cookies.  {I'm sure she's reading this and not remembering.}  But they are good, easy, and cute.  They have all the basics covered

Swedish Christmas Cookies
From Food Network Kitchens

Ingredients:

2 ½ cups all-purpose flour
2 tsp ground cardamom (you can substitute ginger)
¼ tsp fine salt
1 cup unsalted butter, at room temp
1 cup confectioners' sugar
1 large egg, room temp
1 tbsp pure vanilla extract
1 tsp finely grated lemon zest
Colored sanding sugars or chopped toasted pecans

Directions:

1. Whisk the flour, cardamom, and salt in a bowl.
2. Put the butter and confectioners' sugar in a food processor, and process until smooth. Pulse in the egg, vanilla, and lemon zest until combined. Add the flour mixture and process to make a soft buttery dough. Divide dough in half onto 2 sheets of plastic wrap, using the plastic, shape into rough logs. Refrigerate the dough logs for 30 minutes until just firm enough to shape into uniform logs, 8" long by 2" in diameter. Refrigerate until firm, at least 2 hours or overnight.
3. Preheat oven to 325 degrees F.
4. Scatter either the sanding sugars or toasted nuts on a work surface and roll the logs until completely coated. Cut into 1/4 " thick cookies and space about 1" apart on parchment-lined baking sheets. Bake until golden around the edges, about 20 to 25 minutes. Cool cookies on the pan on wire racks.