Joe’s Mail Bag

My good friend Mexico Bob writes in to ask:

On the CBS Early Show this morning a man said that in every cake and cookie recipe that you make involving white flour you should add a teaspoon of Cardamom. What’s this all about? Is it something that we might use in a Danish?

Funny you should ask that, for in fact Danish dough (and by extension coffee cake dough) is the perfect application for a little cardamom. It adds a tough of that far northern European je-ne-sais-quoi. Just don’t overdo it because cardamom can be very perfumy. As for cakes and cookies, I’d dispute that every recipe needs it (butter cookies spring to mind), but good baking is all about experimentation. Who knows until you try?