Rose Butter Cookies Recipe - Mother Earth Living

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Roses are a key ingredient in flavoring these cookies, featured in the buttercream frosting and infused into the sugar.

Photo by Winnie Au

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In "Herbal Goddess," herbalist and yoga teacher Amy Jirsa introduces unique, practical ways to include herbs in your daily life, including medicinal healing, food and lifestyle practices.

Cover courtesy Storey Publishing

4 dozen cookies SERVINGS

Ingredients

For cookies:

1 cup butter (vegan or dairy)
1 cup rose-infused sugar (recipe follows)
1 egg or vegan egg substitute
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
2 cups organic unbleached flour
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking powder (aluminum-free)
Rose-Infused Buttercream Frosting (recipe follows)

For infused sugar:

1/3 cup dried chamomile flowers
2 cups organic sugar (white or brown)

For buttercream frosting:

1/2 cup salted butter
1 pound confectioners’ sugar (approximately 3–4 cups, to be beaten in gradually)
2–4 tablespoons milk (vegan or dairy)
1 teaspoon rose water
3–4 drops red food coloring or beet juice (optional)

Directions

To make cookies: In a large bowl, cream together the butter and sugar and beat until light and fluffy. Be patient — this step is important, and I almost always rush it. Beat in the egg and vanilla.
In a medium bowl, sift together the flour, salt, and baking powder. Gradually add the dry ingredients to the butter and sugar, stirring to mix. Chill the dough for about 3 hours.
Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F/200 degrees C and line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
Roll out your dough on a floured cutting board (or roll between two sheets of parchment paper — my preferred method) to 1⁄ 8 -inch thickness. Use cookie cutters or the rim of a glass — lightly greased — to cut out cookies. Place the cookies on the baking sheet and bake for 6 to 8 minutes.
When cool completely, top with Rose-Infused FrostingTo make frosting:
Allow the butter to soften on the counter for 20 to 30 minutes. Cream the room-temperature butter with 1⁄ 2 cup of the confectioners’ sugar and just enough milk to make the whole thing start mixing. Beat in the rose water.
Keep adding the confectioners’ sugar and the milk, beating on high, until you have a good frosting consistency. Add a few drops of the red food coloring or a little bit of beet juice (it won’t add a beet flavor) to dye it pink, if you’d like.To make sugar:
Add the flowers to the bottom of a clean 1-quart mason jar (there will be space in the jar — no worries; you want room for shaking).
Cover with the sugar and shake. Let this stand for at least 2 weeks in a cool, dry place. Shake the jar and contents daily.Find more recipes and information on the health properties of roses in The Herbal Healing Powers of Wild Roses.
Excerpted from: Herbal Goddess (c) Amy Jirsa. photography by (c) Winnie Au. used with permission of Storey Publishing. Buy this book from our store: Herbal Goddess.

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Herbal Goddess (Storey Publishing, 2015) is herbalist and yoga teacher Amy Jirsa’s guide to the restorative powers of herbs, including recipes and ideas for healing teas, nourishing foods, and beauty and health treatments. This recipe for Rose Butter Cookies comes from the chapter “Rediscovering the Most Romantic Bloom.”

You can purchase this book from the Mother Earth Living store: Herbal Goddess.

Butter cookies are the quintessential cookie, in my opinion. Even when I started substituting vegan butter in these recipes, nothing really changed. Ah, the wonders of the modern age.

Use the sugar, herb flecks and all, in any recipe. You can also get creative — try lavender, rose, rosemary, ginger, vanilla, or any combination of herbs to flavor your sugars.