Rosemary Butter Sandwich Cookies with Orange Blossom Water Buttercream Filling

Christmas is coming, and at Century Farmhouse that used to mean baking a lot of cookies: gingerbread, sugar cookies, pinwheels, shortbreads, snow-on-the-mountains, and pfeffernuss, but we just don't eat the cookies as much now and prefer a few really wonderful desserts to tins and tins of cookies. I have been playing around with some cookie recipes though, adding herbs other than lavender to my butter cookie recipes for example, and I have been getting some striking results. Here is the result of playing with rosemary and citrus - two of my favorite flavors!

Rosemary Butter Sandwich Cookies

These sweet and buttery sandwich cookies are the perfect foil for savory herbs such as rosemary. Paired with the orange blossom water buttercream (recipe below), they are decadent treats!

Ingredients:

2/3 cup butter, softened

2 cups all-purpose flour

3/4 cup sugar

1 egg

1 Tablespoon milk

2 teaspoons dried rosemary, finely chopped or broken

1 teaspoon baking powder

1 teaspoon vanilla

dash salt

Let's make 'em! Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.

1. Beat butter in a large mixing bowl until softened. Add about half the flour and mix well. Add sugar & rosemary, egg, milk, baking powder, vanilla, & salt. Beat until combined well. Beat or stir in remaining flour.

2. Divide dough in half, cover, and chill about 3 hours or until easy to handle.

3. Roll each half of the dough on a lightly floured surface to 1/8-inch thickness. Using a knife or cookie cutters or a glass dipped in flour, cut dough into desired shapes. Place 1 inch apart on an ungreased cookie sheet.

4. Bake in a 375 degree oven for 7 minutes or until done - do not brown the cookies. Cool on the cookie sheet for one minute. Remove cookies from the sheet; cool on a wire rack.

5. Thickly spread the back of one cookie with the Orange Blossom Buttercream (recipe below) and top with the backside of a second cookie to make a sandwich.

Makes about 2 dozen - 2-inch round sandwich cookies

Orange Blossom Buttercream

This luscious frosting is made richer with the addition of a little melted white chocolate. Use this buttercream to frost your favorite cupcakes or cakes too.

Ingredients:

2 ½ cups powdered sugar

2 - 3 Tablespoons milk or cream or half & half

3 Tablespoons butter, softened

3 squares white chocolate, melted (use real white chocolate, not a palm oil substitute)

1 teaspoon grated orange rind - organic orange is best, wash any orange thoroughly before grating

dash of salt

¼ teaspoon (plus a tiny drop or more to taste) Orange Blossom Water

*** A note about the orange blossom water: It is quite concentrated, so don't be tempted to put a lot of it into the frosting or you'll be eating a mouthful of flowers. You can temper some of the sweet floral flavor by grating about 1 teaspoon fresh orange rind into the frosting.

Let's make it!

1. Melt the white chocolate in a microwave-safe bowl for about 1 minute or until it stirs smoothly. Do not over heat.

2. Put all the ingredients except the softened butter and the melted white chocolate into a medium sized mixing bowl. Stir until the sugar and the liquids create a very thick, stiff ball. You might find adding a bit more milk to a very dry mixture helpful, but add it carefully as the frosting thins quickly.

3. Add the butter and the melted white chocolate to the stiff sugar mixture and stir or mix to create a smooth buttercream frosting.

4. Frost the cookies and eat one! They are delicious.