Rosewater Cardamon Cookie

SHORTBREAD RINGS (GH'RAYBEH)
Gourmet, December 1999
Makes 34 cookies.

Ingredients
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 cup confectioners sugar
1 stick unsalted butter, softened (113g)
1/2 cup vegetable shortening
1/2 teaspoon ground cardamom (i added 1 tsp)
1/2 teaspoon rose water, or to taste (i added around 1 tbs)
1/2 teaspoon orange-flower water, or to taste (omitted)
34 whole blanched almonds
or shelled natural pistachios (1/4 cup)

Preparation
Preheat oven to 300°F.
Beat together flour, sugar, butter, shortening, cardamom, rose water, and orange-flower water in a bowl with an electric mixer on low speed until a smooth dough forms.
Roll dough into walnut-size balls, then roll each ball into a 5-inch rope. Form each rope into a 2-inch circle, overlapping ends slightly. Press a nut into each cookie at overlap. (too fiddlely, i just rolled into the dough into balls and pressed a pistachio on top! :P )
Arrange cookies, 1 inch apart, on 2 ungreased baking sheets and bake in upper and lower thirds of oven, switching position of sheets halfway through baking, until dry to the touch but still white, 20 to 22 minutes total. Transfer cookies to a rack to cool. Cooks' note: • Cookies keep in an airtight container at room temperature 1 week.

comments: There was some confusion regarding the actual weight of a stick of a butter...i think that 113g is probably too little for this recipe..cos the dough was quite crumbly...the next time, i would use Copha though cos the butter tends to overwhelm the rosewater...and make the cookie a tad too yellow. They taste like something that the V tea room @ the Esplanade in Singapore would serve! Very delicate and interesting flavours...! Great with tea...cos they are quite rich.. :)