These incredibly buttery, crumbly, floral Rose Cardamom Shortbread Cookies are paired best with a nice cup of tea or coffee. Even though they look fancy, but these Middle eastern Persian Love cookies are simple to make.

recipe for buttery rose and cardamom Persian love cookies

These rose and cardamom shortbread cookies are made with rose water (one of my most favorite ingredient to infuse almost everything with) and cardamom. Those two essential flavors found in Persian Love Cookies. I used white chocolate and some ground pistachio to decorate these cookies with. Rose Water paired with cardamom impart that subtle floral flavor that you are aiming for in these Rose Cardamom Shortbread Cookies which are also known as Persian Love Cookies. And the use of butter makes these cookies oh-so-buttery. Tender, moist and buttery. 🙂 Rose and cardamom are a undeniably perfect match. The sweet, spicy, and fragrant flavors of cardamom coupled with Rose water, which has a predominantly floral flavor that is not quite savory, and not quite sweet make these cookies undeniably a delicious and exotic treat.

cookies made with cardamom powder, pistachios and shredded rose petals.

For the glaze, I did a simple white chocolate glaze. I drizzled a bit of cardamom powder and some ground pistachios to make them complete as Persian Love cookies. And for the final touch, decorated the rose cardamom shortbread cookies with just shredded real roses. Yes, roses are edible, but make sure to use orange roses or culinary roses. Just cut using a sharp knife and sprinkle them over the cookies.

Table of Contents

So, What are shortbread cookies?

Short refers to the shortening of the gluten. Lots of butter is used in shortbread cookies to bnd though since there is no other liquid ingredient. You may think, shortbread cookies are the fancier cousins of Butter Cookies, right? Though, Butter cookies are very similar to shortbread, with the main variation being an increase in sugar. In addition to making them taste awesome, the higher ratio of sugar to butter means a butter cookie is cookie-cutter-ready and bakes beautifully without any tendency to crumble.

That’s exactly how you will find these rose cardamom shortbread cookies or as popularly known as Persian love cookies to be – tender and moist and not cloyingly sweet.

Why you will love these rose cardamom cookies?

Perfect for the Holidays parties and cookie swap parties
Makes for a lovely edible gift
Pairs well with a hot cup of coffee or tea
It is so good it will be a great addition to your baking repertoire
It is moist, light, and delicious
Does not need any fancy stand mixer or electric beater
Egg-free
Use of real butter lends it a premium flavor and texture.
It is much cheaper and convenient to make at home.
You can modify the recipe by adding certain variations (few discussed in the post) to create a whole new cookie recipe.
Easy to follow recipe, the dough can be made months in advance and baked fresh when needed.

What You Need To Make Rose Cardamom Shortbread Cookies

Measuring cup
Measuring spoons
Mixing bowl
Electric mixer
Cling wrap
Two baking sheets
Parchment paper
Cookie Cutter
Rolling Pin

Ingredients used in Rose Cardamom Shortbread Cookies

Flour – I have used all purpose flour in this recipe. I think almond flour will work too but I haven’t tried that yet.
Crushed Rose Petals
Rose Water – I found a bottle of rose water at whole foods. Sometimes they carry it , sometimes they don’t. Some stores also stock rose water in the sweetener or baking aisle with items like almond and vanilla extract. However Rose Water can easily be found at Indian or Middle Eastern stores. My most favorite Rose Water brand is Sadaf.
Cardamom Powder – I make my own cardamom powder. You’ll get the most flavor by using the pods and grinding the seeds If you are crunched for time, you can use store bought cardamom powder.
Butter – I have used a good quality salted butter here. The extra touch of salt is especially delicious when making extra buttery cookies
White Chocolate
Pistachio

Tips for Making Rose Cardamom Shortbread Cookies

Here are some of my best tips to get perfect cookies every time:

Use softened butter. Softened butter will cream easily with sugar.
Cream butter and sugar for few minutes. This will ensure lighter and flaky cookies.
Make sure to chill the dough – Chilled dough is easier to roll out and also prevents the cookies from spreading too much in the oven.
Use two pieces of parchment paper to roll the dough – One reason 🙂 you will have less to clean up later!
Easy on the rose water – Rose water can get perfumy. So use at your discretion.
Do not over mix the dough – Just mix enough to form a ball. I used my hands to combine the flour and wet mixture

Steps to make rose cardamom shortbread cookies

Step 1 ~ Beat sugar and room temperature butter till the mixture is creamy and fluffy. This process will need a couple of minutes at least.

This is the most important step. Creaming the butter and sugar. Beat the butter and sugar to make it creamy. Make sure NOT to incorporate too much air though…,more air mean, the cookies will spread while baking. Use superfine sugar so that it mixes well with butter.

Step 2 ~ Add flour, cardamom powder, rose water, shredded rose petals and combine till the mixture forms a crumbly dough

Make sure there are no lumps in the flour. Add all the dry ingredients together and mix the flour into the dough with minimal effort, in the minimum amount of time. Don’t overmix because if you do, the more gluten you develop, causing the cookies to be chewy and tough, instead of light and crumbly.

Step 3~ use your fingers to put the dough together and form a ball

Use your fingers to bring the clumps of flour together to make a ball of dough.

Step 4 ~ use a cling film wrap to wrap the ball of dough. You can press the dough to form a disc

Turn the dough out onto some cling film. Press the dough together, forming a disc shape, about an inch in height. Now its time to refrigerate the dough for couple hours.

Step 5 ~ take the dough out and divide into two parts. Roll one part of the dough between two sheets of parchment papers

Roll out the dough, about 1/4 inch thick, evenly. Cut out the desired shapes and place on a parchment paper lined cookie sheets, leaving about 2 inches in between the cookies. Chill the cut cookie dough a little more before baking.

Step 6 ~ Preheat oven to 350 degree F and bake the chilled cookies for 8 to 9 minutes

Step 7 ~ Melt white chocolate in 30 second increments in the microwave until the chocolate has melted. Dip the cookies into the white chocolate. Before the chocolate is set, Sprinkle a bit of cardamom powder, pistachios and shredded rose petals.

Common Questions About Rose Cardamom Shortbread Cookies

Can you prepare the rose cardamom shortbread cookies dough ahead of time?

YES! The cookie dough can stay in the fridge for several days. In fact, if you made the dough for Christmas parties and you have left over dough, you can chill the dough till Valentine’s day to bake some beautiful heart shaped cookies.

How important is the butter temperature?

Softened butter (but not melted butter) is what you need to get the best texture out of these cookies.

Why I need to chill the dough?

Refrigerating as stated in the recipe is key to harden the butter which prevents it from spreading too much while baking.

What to do to prevent my Shortbread Cookies from spreading?

Make sure your butter is soft enough so that it creams well with sugar. Cream the butter and sugar for 2 to 3 minutes. Overbeating will incorporate too much air which spreads while baking.

Try combining the dough with your hands; that way the warmth from your hands would melt the butter and would help in binding the dough to the right consistency. If the dough is cracking while rolling, then it is absolutely fine. All cookie dough does that just press them together, keep rolling and you should be fine.

How about some other Rose flavored treats?

Like this – Rose Latte

Or Rose Water Bundt Cake

Or Rose Phirni