Walnut Cookies

Ingredients

• 250 g soft butter
• 150 g brown sugar
• 2 Eggs
• 1 tsp grated unprocessed orange zest
• 0.5 tsp grated unprocessed lemon zest
• 250 g flour
• 50 g starch
• 150 g ground walnuts
• 1 tsp Baking powder
• 0.5 tsp ground cardamom
• 50 walnut halves
• 2 tsp rum
• 50 g powdered sugar

Instructions

1. 1.

   Beat the butter with the sugar until fluffy, then fold in the eggs and grated orange and lemon zest.

2. 2.

   Mix the flour with the starch, ground walnuts, baking powder, and cardamom. Stir half of the dry mixture into the wet batter, then knead the rest by hand.

3. 3.

   Shape the dough into a ball, wrap it in cling film, and chill for 1 hour.

4. 4.

   Preheat the oven to 180 °C (350 °F) with fan or conventional heat. Line baking trays with parchment paper.

5. 5.

   Form walnut-sized balls from the dough, place them on the tray, and press lightly flat. Place one walnut half in the center of each ball and bake for 10–12 minutes. Do not overbake; the cookies will firm up as they cool.

6. 6.

   Remove from the tray using the parchment paper and let cool on a wire rack. Whisk the rum with powdered sugar to make a very thin glaze, then brush lightly over the walnut halves.

7. 7.

   Store in an airtight container with peeled unprocessed orange zest until softening.