Ingredients
1 cup / 4.5 oz / 130 g unbleached all-purpose flour
Scant 1 cup / 4.5 oz / 130g whole wheat pastry flour
1/3 cup / 1 oz / 30 g lightly toasted, sliced, pecans
1 tablespoon dried rose petals, plus more for sprinkling
1 tablespoon black sesame seeds, plus more for sprinkling
1/2 pound (2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened
1/2 cup / 3.5 oz / 100 g sugar
scant 1/2 teaspoon fine sea salt
2 teaspoons rose water
large grain sugar, for sprinkling
Preparation
In a medium bowl whisk together the all-purpose and whole wheat flours, pecans, rose petals, and sesame seeds. Set aside.
In a separate medium bowl, or in the bowl of an electric mixer, beat the butter with the sugar, salt and rosewater, until smooth and creamy, about a minute. Add the flour mixture and mix until barely combined. Scrape the dough into a ball, and if you feel like it needs to come together a bit more, knead it once or twice on the counter top, or until it is smooth. Shape into a round, flat patty shape wrap tightly in plastic, and refrigerate for a couple hours, or overnight.
About fifteen minutes before you’re ready to stamp out your cookie shapes, remove the dough from the refrigerator. Position racks in the top and bottom thirds of the oven and preheat to 350F / 180C. Line baking sheets with parchment paper.
Roll the dough out 1/4-inch thick on a lightly floured counter top, and stamp into desired shapes. You can collect and roll out dough scraps as well, after your first round of stamping. If the dough gets too warm, put it back in the refrigerator for a bit. Place the cookies at least an inch apart on a prepared baking sheets, sprinkle each cookie with a combination of large-grain sugar, rose petals and sesame seeds, then chill them one last time in the freezer for another ten minutes.
Bake until the cookies are golden at the edges, 13 to 15 minutes, but watch them closely. It’s more about coloring than time here. Rotate the sheets back to front about 9 minutes in. Remove from the oven and after a minute or two transfer to a baking rack to cool completely.
Store leftovers in a big jar, they keep beautifully for days. The recipe makes dozens of tiny cookies, the yield really depends on the size of your cookie cutter.
