To all my Chinese friends, I wish you a happy New Year.
A Kurdish subculture exists in Lebanon made up of folks who for reasons of persecution or poverty have had to leave their land and seek employment here.
I befriended many Kurds while in Lebanon. One of them, Asma, is a Kurdish woman originally from Turkey that I consider a role model.
So imagine my excitement when I discovered a blog on Kurdish cuisine, edited by Gula Welat.
This recipe is adapted from her blog. These cookies are from a rice-producing region from the town of Kermanshah; hence the use of rice flour (used in Lebanese cuisine as well to thicken puddings) and rose water and cardamom. Rice flour is sold in Middle-Eastern and Asian grocery stores and online.
The cookies are delicious, faintly sweet, delicate and fragrant. Their texture resembles shortbread cookies. Their color is eggshell.
INGREDIENTS:
- 300 g. Rice flour (8 ounces)
- 1/2 teaspoon of baking powder
- 130 g. white granulated sugar (4 ounces plus one half tablespoon)
- 1 large egg
- 125 g. melted butter (1 stick of unsalted butter or 4 ounces)
- 1 to 2 tablespoons of rose water
- 1 teaspoon of ground cardamom
METHOD:
- Melt the butter in the microwave for one minute. Place in a mixer bowl the egg and the sugar. Beat until the mixture is fluffy, add the melted butter and rose water. Add the rice flour slowly (mixed with the baking powder) and finally add the cardamom powder.
- Place the dough (which should be moist but firm) in the fridge, wrapped in wax paper, overnight.
- The next day, remove the dough from the fridge and let it sit at room temperature 30 minutes to soften a little. Either use a greased and floured cookie mold or roll out and cut with a cutter of your choice. Place on a cookie sheet lined with baking or parchment paper. Bake in a preheated 325F oven for about 15 minutes until baked thoroughly but still white. Serve.
43 Comments
Love these little chickens! Will try them for our chinese new year festivities!
These look great, you’ve inspired me to try them,.
These cookies are too cute and different with rice flour indeed. I’ll have to check out that blog. On my last trip to London I ate at a Kurdish restaurant and just loved it. Never had that food again.
Beautiful cookies! I am a sucker for pretty cake and cookie moulds!
Chinese Year of the Rabbit, and Vietnamese Year of the Cat.
Very cool mold.
Passing this recipe on to a gluten-free friend of mine! I love your cookie mold–how cute is that?
How very very delicate and pretty. YUM. I learn so much from you, Joumana and it is like a day in the sun. I am just soaking it all in.
Valerie
These look absolutely fantastic, I’d love to try them. It’s mid summer in Australia right now though and a bit hot for baking.
I use rice flour in my shortbread cookies! It yields the most delicate results. I love your molds! I have a Mamoul mold that was gifted to me by a friend a few years ago which I still have not used. Not as clever as yours but a pretty star pattern. Now I know the recipe with which to inaugurate it!
Hi Joumana,
We actually have the similar traditional cookies back in Indonesia.
I wish I was home tho…this post gets me nostalgic.
Perfect cookie for that lingering coffee. haaaaaa
Where did you find that sweet cookie mold?
@Theresa: This is a cookie mold I found in Chinatown, San Fransisco. It is supposed to b for mooncakes I believe.
Rose water and cardamon spiced cookies sounds so good. I like your cookie mold!
I have never used rice flour…Lovely little cookies – the mold is charming!
These cookies look so very delicate and such a lovely pale colour. I love cardamom and think these would go very well with a cup of tea.
I love that cockerel cutter, I never see things like that here. It makes cooking fun and this sounds delicious. Diane
ça doit être délicieux!!
bravo et merci du partage,
bon vendredi
Lovely cookies, perfect with a cup of coffee!
What beautiful cookies! I love your recipe with rice flour and the story about the Kurdish lady from Turkey. I am so going to make these. I just wish I had as cool of a rooster cookie cutter as you do!
These remind me of the Chinese New Year. Lovely!
Damn cute cookies..
Wow, I love the vibrancy of the salad and the goat cheese to thicken! I also love the cookies, since I travel often to Japan I use rice flour as well and these look yummy. You continue to amaze!
I love the texture of rice flour! These cookies must be as wonderful as they look. Great with the pinch of cardamom too.
These pretty little cookies look like my kueh bangkit but I am using tapioca flour instead and I love that mold, so cute.
i like these cookies,i wil try it.
I love that mold Joumana! It’s cute.
And these cookies sound amazing. I don’t think I’ve ever knowingly read a Kurdish recipe before. I wish that blog was in English so I could follow it.
Magda
I love those molds… and the cookies look great. I think anything with rosewater will be delicious and I’ve never tried rosewater and cardamom before as the 2 major flavors, num! PS there’s a great rug company in NYC called Kermanshah.. never occurred to me that it was a place too!
These came out beautiful with the mold, very nice flavors with rose water and cardamom!
Those cookies are such a beautiful ivory color … and the little roosters are too cute!
Who can resist a hand held cookie, perfect for little guests served at parties, it gives them something to smile about. These cookies are perfect for people with celiac disease.
tes cookies sont superbes, nickel, ca se voit à la couleur
j’espere que tu as aimé. Ca fait plaisir en tout cas
je sais qu’il y a une certaine communauté kurde au liban. Mes amitiés
These are beautiful! Each time I visit you, I find something else to add to my baking list.
oh goodness these cookies are cute and sound delicious. I need to get me some cute cookie molds to try them.
I just have to make these cookies. I have everything in my pantry to make them.
Thanks for sharing it.
These are so adorable
These are so adorable
And I am sure they are delicious as well
très jolis biscuits!! j’adore tes petits moules!! bon dimanche! bises!
Oh wow we have these same rice flour cookies in Iran, and guess what? they’re rooted from the Kurdish province of kermanshah!
Those are sooo beautiful, and along with the coffee. Lovely. Im also adoring your cookie mould!
These must be delicious – I love cardamom and rose water. I’ve bookmarked the recipe
The little fish shape is so cute!
J’ ai de la farine de riz et je vais essayé de faire ces petites douceurs, qui en plus sont très jolis….
What lovely cookies! And gluten-free too! I love the beautiful shapes from the molds, as well as the addition of the rosewater and cardamum. I’ve never cooked with those flavors, but I think my girls would enjoy making these and learning about the region they come from!
magnifique ton blog est superbe bonne continuation
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[...] I had was rice flour so I searched the web to find something else to enjoy and came up with these rice flour, rose water flavoured biscuits from Taste of Beirut blog (I am calling them biscuits not cookies as cookies in my mind should be [...]
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