Rose water butter cookies

These delicate rose water butter cookies are the perfect little treats with a nice cup of tea. They do, however, also go surprisingly well with a glass of champagne or other bubbles, for example for New Year’s!

They also make a great hostess gift, bagged or boxed nicely, maybe even accompanied by the hostess’ favorite tea or bottle of bubbles.

This rose water butter cookie recipe hails back to my grandma, and there is indeed something totally old-school about butter cookies. The rose water though seems quite an exotic addition which must have been a rather decadent and almost daring feature back in grandma’s day.

Often used in Middle Eastern cuisine, rose water adds a fragrant, delicately bitter balance to often very sweet treats. This is exactly why these cookies pair so well with tea and champagne. Try for yourself! Maybe start with tea, and then move on to bubbles, you decide 🙂

Having a tea party? Or, maybe a champagne party or just feel in the mood for bubbles? Here are some other great pairing ideas to add:

With tea:

Try our amazing scones with Camembert and pumpkin seeds:

These mouthwatering mini Sarah Bernhardt cakes:

Or maybe this fun and lavish take on carrot cake:

With champagne/bubbles:

Wonderful ricotta appetizer – always a hit and so easy to make:

Rose water butter biscuits (yields about 100 cookies)

Ingredients

Note: If you use cups for measuring the dry ingredients, make sure you measure it before sifting. Beware that cups can be a somewhat inaccurate measurement, which is why I prefer to use ounces or grams, especially for baking.

8.8 oz or 1 3/4 cups (250 g) all-purpose flour

8.8 oz or 1 2/3 cups (250 g) potato starch

8.8 oz or 1 3/4 cups (250 g) icing sugar (confectioners’ sugar)

1 vanilla bean

8.8 oz or 1 cup and 2 tbsp (250 g) salted butter (if you use unsalted butter add a pinch of salt)

5 tbsp rose water

Directions

1.Sieve the flour, potato starch and icing sugar together into one large bowl.

2. Split the vanilla bean lengthwise and use a small sharp knife to scrape out all the vanilla seeds from inside the bean. Add the vanilla seeds to the flour, potato starch and sugar mix.

3. Cut the butter into small cubes, and add them too as well as the rose water.

4. Knead the dough well together, making sure to avoid butter or vanilla seed lumps.

5. Divide and roll the dough into thick sausages of about 2 inches (5 cm) diameter each. Wrap each roll of dough in cling film. Put them in the fridge until the dough has set and is stiff enough to easily cut into slices.

6. Preheat the oven to 400 F (200 degrees Celsius). Now cut the dough into thin slices of about 1/8 inch (1/2 cm), and place the slices on a baking tray clad with baking parchment.

7. Bake the cookies for about 7-10 minutes until they are light golden brown. After taking them out of the oven, place them on a cooling rack to make sure they become crispy.

8. Leave the rose water butter cookies to cool completely before you transfer them to an airtight container. The cookies will last up to 3 weeks when stored at room temperature.

Enjoy!