Badam Kurabye, scented with rose water they remind me of rose flavoured Lokum. They are inspired by the well known Italian Amaretti biscuits but with pistachios, ground rose petals and rose water.
When I first moved to Australia and lived in the East suburb of Perth, I used make and sell very similar cookies to a coffee shop in Mount Lawley. The coffee shop was called Soho and a very kind relative who was the coffee shop regular had organised the biscuit deal for me. With the suggestion of the same relative we named them Azerbaijani Delights. I made and sold cookies to the shop for a few months up until we moved to the south. I still make the cookies quite often however, this days I don’t go into the trouble of shelling kilos of almonds the way I did back then.
Ingredients
4 egg whites
350g caster sugar
1 tsp rose water
450g almond meal
50g pistachio nuts, ground
1-2 tbsp ground dry rose petals
1 cup icing sugar
2 tbsp pistachios chopped
2 tbsp dried rose petals
Method
Preheat oven to 160C fan
Prepare and line with baking paper a large cookie sheet
Place egg whites and sugar into a bowl of a stand mixer (or use a large bowl and hand mixer if you haven’t got a stand mixer). Beat the eggs and sugar until they reach soft to medium peaks add rose water and whisk until incorporated. Using a spatula gradually add the almond, ground pistachios and ground rose petals, fold until all ingredients are fully incorporated.
Shape into 30g balls (about the size of the walnut), and roll in icing sugar. Slightly flatten and using a wet finger make an indent in the centre, sprinkle with extra rose petals and chopped pistachios. Leave a few cm space between each cookie so they don’t bake into each other and bake them for 8-12 min. Move to a cooling rack. Once cooled store in an airtight container. They last at least 1 week.
