Rose and Cardamom Biscuits | Celia's Saucer

I've always loved roses. For many nostalgic reasons: it's was my nana's name (and part of my middle name), for all the times my best friend and I would pinch them from neighbouring gardens and crush them into an oil that we'd dab on our wrists as if we were ladies, and for those late night walks in London filled with the comforting fragrance of July roses in bloom.

It's not so easy to find roses that have any fragrance these days, as they've been so modified to last for longer that the scent has all but faded. The Real Flower Company still do a gorgeous, heady bunch though, cultivated carefully on their Hampshire farm. A recent beautiful bouquet inspired me to bake these delicious little biscuits. They went down a treat at the office.

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Biscuits

100g Unsalted butter, slightly softened 

55g Caster sugar 

170g Plain flour 

1 Tbsp Ground almonds

1 Tbsp Rose water 

6 Cardamom pods 

Rosewater Icing

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Icing

200g Icing sugar  

1 tsp Rose water

Juice of half a lemon

To Decorate

Rose Tea, whole buds to decorate 

Method

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Preheat the oven to 190C/375F/Gas Mark 5.

Using a pestle and mortar, work the cardamom pods to get the seeds out. Discard the pods and grind the seeds to a fine powder.

If you have a food processor, pulse all the ingredients together until they form a soft dough. 

If you don’t have a food processor, beat the butter and sugar together until soft and creamy. Add the rose water, cardamom and work in the flour a little at a time, with as little beating as possible. Pat the paste into a smooth ball.

Lightly flour a work surface and roll the dough out to a thickness of about 1cm.

Using a cookie cutter, place the biscuits onto a baking tray lined with greaseproof paper. The biscuits must be about 2cm apart. The dough should yield approximately 25 small biscuits.

Bake in the preheated oven for 12 to 15 minutes, until the biscuits are golden.

Allow to cool completely before decorating.

To make the icing, combine all the ingredients together to form a thick paste. The mixture needs to be quite thick to avoid it dripping down the sides, so add more icing sugar, if necessary, to thicken it up.

Spread a teaspoon of icing onto each biscuit and sprinkle with the chopped pistachios and dried rose petals.

Store in an airtight contained for up to four days.

Recipe from The Pretty Blog