Cardamom Orange Rice Flour Cookies
These Cardamom Orange Rice Flour Cookies were inspired by the Persian rice flour cookies, Nan-e Berenji. Nan-e-Berenji are delicate shortbread-like cookies that are usually flavored with cardamom and rose water, and garnished with poppy seeds. To create my own twist on these cookies, I modified the flavor profile of this recipe using orange zest instead of rose water. Then I topped the cookies with a sweet orange zest icing.
Because these cookies are made of rice flour, they have a drier and softer crumb than shortbread cookies. Some people might find the texture a bit dry and gritty. So making them into sandwich cookies filled with jam or dipping them in my Blood Orange Curd smooths them out and compliments the flavors. The more I eat these cookies, the more I can’t get enough of them! This recipe is also great for gluten-free folks.
Featured Ingredient – Rice Flour
Rice flour is made from milling rice into a fine, powdery, white flour. Rice flour is gluten free and is typically used to make noodles, Asian desserts, or as a thickener for sauces. It’s also mixed with other gluten-free flours to use as an alternative to wheat flour. When shopping for rice flour, you’ll generally see “rice flour” or “glutinous rice flour” (glutinous rice flour is also called sweet rice flour, though it’s not sweet in taste). Glutinous rice flour creates a sticky, chewy consistency while rice flour doesn’t. Be sure to check the recipe and buy the correct flour, since rice flour vs. glutinous rice flour are generally not substitutes and can create dramatically different results.
Cardamom Orange Rice Flour Cookies
Ingredients
- ½ tsp baking powder
- 3 small pods cardamon ground, (about ¼ – ½ tsp. ground cardamom)
- ⅛ tsp kosher salt
- 160 g rice flour plus more for dusting
- 113 g unsalted butter, room temperature (1 stick)
- 55 g powdered sugar
- 1 large egg
- Zest of 1 large orange
Easy cookie glaze
- 120 g powdered sugar (1 cup)
- 5 tsp water
- 1.5 tsp corn syrup
- ½ tsp orange zest
- ⅛ tsp vanilla extract
Instructions
Cardamom Orange Rice Flour Cookies
- Using an electric mixer, mix together butter and powdered sugar.
- Add the egg and the orange zest and combine.
- Add the remaining ingredients, rice flour, baking powder, salt, and cardamom, in 2-3 batches while mixing to combine. A soft dough should form.
- Place the dough on plastic wrap and flatten into a 1 inch disk. Refrigerate for 4 hours or overnight.
- Remove the dough from the refrigerator.
- Preheat the oven to 300F.
- Line a baking pan with parchment paper or a silicon mat.
- Dust your workstation and rolling pin with rice flour. Gently roll out the dough until it's about 1/4 inch thick. If the dough cracks and is difficult to handle, let it rest for a few minutes to warm up a bit. If the dough is sticky, continue to dust with rice flour.
- Use a cookie cutter to stamp out desired shape and place the shaped cookie dough onto the lined baking pan, about 1 inch apart.
- Bake at 300F for about 8-10 minutes until the bottom edges start turning a light golden color. Cool on the baking pan.
Icing Glaze
- Mix all the icing ingredients in a bowl. Stir to remove any lumps.
- Spoon the icing over the cooled cookies. Allow to dry and set.