Mix the flour, espresso powder, cardamon, baking soda, and salt together in a large bowl and set it aside.

In the bowl of stand mixer fitted with paddle attachment, beat the butter at high speed until soft and fluffy, about 1 minute. Add the brown sugar and orange zest and mix at medium speed until combined and fluffy, about 1 minute more. Add the molasses, orange juice, fiori di sicilia, and vanilla and mix to combine. Add the flour mixture and mix at low speed until a thick dough *just* forms (do not overmix!).

Divide the dough into two equal portions and pat each into a rough oval shape. Cover and place one of the in the refrigerator while you roll out the other one.

Place a sheet of parchment paper on a clean flat surface. Place one portion of the dough on the parchment paper, then place another sheet of parchment on top of it. If you are using standard cookie cutters, roll out the dough until it is 1 cm thick (if you go too thin, the cookies won’t be soft and will be crisp instead. Better to err on the side of a bit thicker than a bit thinner!) If you are using the wooden mold cookie cutters linked in this post, roll it out to be 2 cm thick. Slide the parchment paper-wrapped dough onto a baking sheet or cutting board and refrigerate it while you repeat the same steps with the other portion of dough. Refrigerate both rolled out sheets of dough for 1 hour or until nice and firm.

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. Remove one sheet of dough from the fridge and place it on a clean surface. Peel back the top layer of parchment paper and lay it on a baking sheet. Cut out the cookie shapes and place them on the lined baking sheet, giving about 1 inch of space between cookies.

Place the baking sheet in the center rack of the preheated oven. The baking time will depend on the size of the cookie. For thicker cookies or cookies that are larger than 3 1/32 inches across, bake for about 8 minutes. For cookies that are smaller than 3.5 inches in diameter or have a lot of exposed edges, like snowflake shaped cookies, bake for about 6 minutes. It’s okay if they look slightly underdone in the center.

Remove from the oven and allow to cool for 15 minutes before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely. Store in an airtight container for up to 1 week, or 2 weeks if refrigerated.

You can serve them as-is, or if you want them to be a bit sweeter you can dust them with powdered sugar, or you can top with the below Orange Glaze.

For the Orange Glaze, mix together all the ingredients until combined. Pout the glaze into a wide shallow bowl, and dip the cooled cookies into the glaze, top facing down, until just the top but NOT the bottom is touching the glaze (basically, don’t submerge them). Place the cookie on a wire rack, glaze side up, with some parchment paper or paper towels underneath the rack to catch any extra glaze that drips off the cookies. Allow the glaze to cool and harden for 2-3 hours before transferring to an airtight container.