"Forget Me Not" Sambusik Cookie
Walnut-filled cookies with a hint of rose flavor.
🍽️ Makes 36
Ingredients
| 1 cup | 240 ml | clarified butter or ghee (for the covering) |
| 1/3 cup | 80 ml | sugar (for the covering) |
| 3/4 cup | 180 ml | milk, at room temperature (for the covering) |
| 4 cups | 960 ml | all-purpose flour (for the covering) |
| 1 cup | 240 ml | confectioner's sugar (for the covering) |
| 1 1/2 cups | 360 ml | ground walnuts (for the filling) |
| 1/2 cup | 120 ml | sugar (for the filling) |
| 1 tsp | 5 ml | rosewater (or 1/2 teaspoon orange flower water) (for the filling) |
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350F.
- Stir the sugar into the clarified butter.
- Stir in the milk.
- Add the flour in small batches and knead by hand until smooth. 4 cups of flour is a lot of flour! I had to enlist larger hands to assist with the kneading.
- Roll out the dough to a thickness of about 1/4 inch and cut with a 2 inch round cookie cutter.
- Combine all the filling ingredients and place a good mounded teaspoon of the filling on each cut-out cookie, fold it over, and pinch the edges closed.
- Traditional sambusik cookies are then curved into a half-moon shape.
- Bake at 350F for 15 to 20 minutes, until the cookies are lightly browned.
- Remove the cookies from the oven and cool.
- Sprinkle liberally with confectioner's sugar.
- Dig your teeth into these and enjoy these walnut filled cookies with a hint of rose flavor!
Some tips:
- Look at the ingredient list carefully. It is 1 and 1/2 cups of ground walnuts, not 1 and 1/2 cups walnuts, ground. It took about 4 cups of walnuts, possibly more, to yield 1 and 1/2 cups of ground walnuts. This was the part that took the longest. So if you decide to make these and you have a Middle-Eastern or Arab store nearby and they stock ground walnuts, jump at that chance. It will save you a lot of time!
- It might be a good idea to halve this recipe. That way one is dealing with only 3/4 cup ground walnuts and only 2 cups of flour. You won't go nuts grinding the walnuts like I did! And 2 cups flour is manageable for medium to small size adult hands!
- I wasn't really sure what Diana Abu-Jaber meant by curved into a half moon shape. To me, half a moon is a semi-circle. I thought perhaps she meant a crescent and so that is what I did. If you have had the real thing when it comes to Sambusik Cookies, do drop me a note to tell me where I could have done better. Ahem! Note the positive tone!
This makes about 35-36 cookies.