Ever since I was a kid, my favorite Christmas cookie has been a Russian Tea Cake (sometimes called Mexican Wedding Cake). While the occasional “Sprinkled Santa” and “Ginger-Ninja-Bread Man” will momentarily lure me, I always return to a cup of spicy black tea and one of those powdered-sugar-covered biscuits. I consider it a mid-winter morning ritual until they’re gone.

As it’s mid-summer and we’re no where near Christmas, I’m challenging myself to make a seasonal variation. Inspired by flavors of the Middle-East, I rebelliously break free from staunchly held “cookie identities,” and give you:

Persian Tea Cakes

with Rosewater, Pistachio, and Cardamom

 

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Ingredients:

• 1 cup unsalted butter (at room temperature)
• ½ cup powdered sugar
• ½ teaspoon rosewater (+1/8 teaspoon if you like a more pronounced flavor)
• 2 ¼ cup all purpose unbleached flour
• ¾ cup shelled pistachios
• ½ teaspoon cardamom
• 1/8 teaspoon white pepper (not pictured)
• ¼ teaspoon salt
• powdered sugar for dusting

 

preheat your oven to 400°

 

cream the butter and sugar together

add the rosewater and cream until light and fluffy

smash the pistachios into small bits:

 

and stir them in the butter along with the flour, cardamom, white pepper, and salt

mix it until it forms a paste

roll a tablespoon of the dough in your hands to form a lovely little ball

and place it on an un-greased, unlined cookie sheet

bake at 400° for 11-14 minutes and remove before they begin to brown

when they’re still warm to the touch, roll them in powdered sugar

after they’ve cooled, roll them in powdered sugar again until they have a nice coating*

These are DELICIOUS!!! The delicacy of the flavors makes you savor each bite and find the distinction of tastes gradually. Rest assured, the rose water is subtle enough that not one of my kids complained of being fed soap for dessert. Triple points.

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*(don’t skip the second roll to reduce sugar or some such sillyness – the rose water balances better with the extra sweetness and if you’re trying to cutback on sugar, I remind you, you’re eating a cookie….)