One of my biggest food peeves are recipes that have ingredients that you have to scour the earth to find. When you live in the middle of nowhere like me, you come to realize that some of the ingredients in your favorite cookbooks are absolutely preposterous! Where in middle England is a housewife supposed to find Amalfi lemons, blood oranges, and the ubiquitous tropical lizard penis (no, not really LOL)??? The answer: not freaking anywhere! As far as I’m concerned, asking for me to find those things is the equivalent of asking me to source eye of newt or unicorn tears.
Lots of times I’ll have to wait till I go to London to stock up on all things wild and wonderful. Such is the case with these crystalized rose petals. I got them at Fortnum & Mason, in case you are wondering. Please feel free to omit them, however, if you can’t find any. Although they are most definitely pretty, they are not a make or break ingredient. There is already plenty of rose flavour without it. Some cute Valentine’s sprinkles would look great too, or you could also top the rosewater cream with a thin layer of strawberry jam. That will give it some nice Valentine’s Day colour.
Another thing that’s not so easy to find? Someone worth making special cookies for. If you’ve got someone who’s the bee’s knees (also available at Fortnum’s right next to the jars of powdered lizard penis 
), then this treat is worth making! Here is another recipe from Martha Stewart’s Cookie App for the iPad. Hope you try it.
Rose Water Cream Sandwiches
Ingredients for the cookie:
- 1 3/4 cups plus 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
- 2 tablespoons cornstarch (cornflour)
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 3/4 cup (1 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened
- 1/2 cup confectioners’ sugar, sifted, plus more for dusting
- 3 tablespoon rose water
- candied rose petals or violets for garnish
Ingredients for the rose water cream filling:
- 4 ounces cream cheese, softened
- 1/4 cup confectioner’s sugar, sifted
- 1 1/2 teaspoons rose water
- 1 1/2 teaspoons milk, plus more if needed
To make the cookies:
Whisk to combine flour, cornstarch and salt in a bowl. In a separate bowl, beat butter and confectioners’ sugar with an electric mixer on medium-high speed until pale and fluffy, 3-4 minutes. Add rose water, and mix until combined, scraping down side of bowl. Reduce speed to low and add flour mixture; mix until just combined. Divide dough in half, and shape into disks. Wrap each in plastic, and chill one hour.
Preheat the oven to 350. On a parchment roll 1 disk of dough to 1/8 inch thickness; chill 15 minutes. Cut 1 1/2 inch rounds* from the dough, and place 1 inch apart on parchment lined baking sheets. Repeat with remaining disk. Using the wide end of a pastry tip, cut a 1/2 inch hole off center in half the rounds. Bake, rotating sheets halfway through until barely golden, about 14 minutes. Transfer cookies to wire racks to cool completely. Unfilled cookies can be stored in an airtight container up to 3 days.
Dust cookies lightly with confectioner’s sugar. Spread a heaping 1/2 teaspoon filling (see below) on whole cookies and tup with cut-out cookies. Place a candied rose petal in each hole. Once sandwiched, cookies can be stored in a single layer in an airtight container at room temperature up to one day.
*In her app, Martha makes round cookies. I decided to use hearts.
To make the rose water cream filling:
Stir together the ream cheese and sugar with a wooden spoon until smooth. Add rose water and milk and stir until smooth. Filling can be refrigerated in an airtight container up to 3 days. Bring to room temperature and stir before using.
this looks so pretty. i love trying any desserts with rose water in them. i cant wait to try this out soon HH thanks for sharing and have a great week. *hugs*
LOL, I literally laughed out loud at the lizard penis comment. But these cookies look splendid, and I absolutely adore rosewater!
These are lovely little treats for Valentine’s Day! I had the hardest time finding rose water but finally got my hands on some. And I love Martha’s recipes but am totally bummed that I don’t get her show anymore – she moved to cable on a channel I don’t get. So sad. xoxo
This cookie looks so pretty, I have a bottle of rose water but did not have a chance to use it yet…this will be a nice way to start
Lovely way to celebrate Valentine’s Day!
What are you asking for V-day, fellow housewife?
Looks like you have someone special to make those for! Lucky girl!
Gorgeous cookies, daahling! The rose petals in the cutout are so cute. I almost forgot about Valentine’s day…definitely something to look forward too
How cute are these!? I love the hearts for Valentines Day. The crystalized rose petals look great!
Oooh, so cute for Valentine’s day! I wonder if I could switch out the rose water for orange flower water as I happen to have a whole bottle that I need to use up.
They are so cute… my daughter would love them.
I cannot find anything rose flavored where I am. It grieves me greatly, as I would love to try recipes like this one.
Ohohoh, Dearie! These are so cute!
I love all the sweets flavoured with rose-water and am so glad you kept the tropical lizard stuff for other dishes
These are so lovely and yes I can find sugared rose petals! Yay! This is such the perfect treat for Valentine’s Day!
My entire next post was going to be built around tropical lizard penises, now I will have to change my entire menu, lol
What a great recipe…and they are just so pretty, perfect for valentines day
Those crystal sugar rose petals were worth the wait for sure. They make those beautiful Valentine’s day cookies even more perfect!
These are so adorable! I really want to make these to send into the office for valentines day! Thanks for the idea!
They look gorgeous! I’m not a huge fan of rose water, but I wouldn’t mind having these cookies
These are gorgeous HH!
That cookie is gorgeous! If only I had a Valentine to bake them for…
I totally agree about how annoying it is trying to find ingredients that are not readily available! Luckily, I live in NYC so there are a plethora of ethic grocery stores but sometimes I just wish recipes were a bit simpler.
Ahah, I totally get the whole ingredients thing. I come from a big city, but spend most of the year in a smaller town, and the lack of more fancified ingredients is just so frustrating at times!
I do have some rose water, though, and am definitely going to be making these as a Valentine’s treat for my dance class. Thanks so much for sharing the recipe with us iPad-less folk!
~Kurious Kitteh
What a lovely little cookie. I would love to serve them at a tea party!
They would be perfect.