Rosewater Cookies With Orange/Blueberry Ice Milk

I added food colouring to the cookies however you may choose to omit it. I'll warn you though-blueberries and oranges make a very grey-ish looking sherbet. A bit of red colouring will do wonders for it.

The cookies are very difficult to work with and if you're not very experienced with a rolling pin, you may wish to skip this until you've developed your skills. You need to work very quickly and immediately move the scraps to the freezer to re-chill as you roll out the next batch. This is where having poor circulation is an asset-my hands are always cold and ready to handle pastry!

If you have candied rose petals on hand, they can be affixed to the top with a bit of decorator's frosting. I couldn't decide between the parlsocker (pearl sugar) or regular sugar lightly dusted-so I made both. The parlsocker shows up better in the photo.

Ice-milk sandwiches just seemed obvious to me, though as you can see by the photograph, I have little patience for making them neat and attractive. Placing a rose on the plate was about as "styled" as my post was going to be today.

Rose water is readily available in Middle Eastern markets and some Indian grocers. It lasts forever if you keep it tightly closed. Some people swear by the stuff for washing their faces, and others insist it is the secret to a good cup of tea. It is surprisingly inexpensive for something that seems so luxurious. I probably don't need to tell you it smells wonderful.

For The Cookies:

1-cup butter at room temperature
1 cup granulated sugar
1 egg
2 tablespoons rose water
A drop of red food colouring
2 ¾ cups sifted all-purpose flour
1/8 teaspoon salt


Cream butter and sugar until light. Add the egg and rose water. Sift the salt into the flour and add to the butter mixture. Roll into two balls and wrap each in waxed paper. Chill several hours.

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. Roll out quickly to ¼ inch thickness. Cut into desired shapes and place on ungreased cookie sheet. Return scraps to freezer to re-chill as you work. Top with sugar and bake 6-8 minutes or until sides are just beginning to brown. Cool on racks.

For the Blueberry/Orange Ice Milk

1 cup orange juice
1-cup blueberries, mashed, strained
1-cup caster sugar
1-cup milk (I used 1% for a very light texture)

Cover the blueberries with sugar in a bowl and let sit 1 hour. Mash well and strain through a sieve. Mix with everything else and process in ice cream maker according to directions.