So I have made a version of these rose quartz cookies in the past, but I wanted to revisit the original recipe I made during my time at Milkbar, which featured a chocolate cookie embedded with Turkish delight(also called loukoumi, and they are like these sugary, pink rose-flavored jellies). The Turkish delight, which are primarily made from cornstarch, actually hold their shape really nicely in the baking process, and turn out looking like these gorgeous rose quartz crystals, sticking out the cookies themselves, all the while being rose flavored. Hence why calling these kinds of cookies “rose quartz cookies” makes sense, from both a visual and taste standpoint! The one thing that prevented the rose quartz cookies from being a true standout, to me anyways, was the texture. Turkish delight is soft and chewy, almost like a gummy candy texture, while the cookies themselves are soft and light as well. A cookie like this, to truly stand on its own, needs textural contrast. So I went back to the initial inspiration for these cookies, which was chocolate-Turkish delight ice cream. I love chocolate-Turkish delight ice cream and I usually eat that kind with pistachios and/or a semolina cake. I didn’t want to add semolina to my cookies, since the high gluten content would make the dough really tough and doughy, but the pistachios gave me an idea. So this time, I wanted to add some different ingredients, such as pistachios, dark chocolate, ruby chocolate, and a little bit of cardamom, just to really make these cookies a departure from the original, in both flavor and texture. The crunchy pistachios, and the crunchy chocolate would add what the cookie lacked. I also used ruby chocolate on top of dark chocolate, since it has a gorgeous pink color, pairs gorgeously with pistachio and rose, and adds a pleasant tartness that you might not expect in a cookie. I also scented the cookies with a little cardamom, since the floral notes of that spice would also enhance both the chocolate and the rose flavors.

For a technical standpoint, this recipe is probably a 7/10 in difficulty, if you don’t have a stand mixer. Using a stand mixer, or even an electric hand mixer, brings down the difficulty to about a 5/10, with the most difficult aspects being making the Turkish delight, and making sure your temperatures are correct before you mix things together. The Turkish delight is made by first making a simple syrup, then making essentially a “batter” using cornstarch (and in my case, gelatin as well) mixed with water. You then have to pour the syrup into the batter, and whisk everything together on medium heat until you get this translucent paste. From there, you have to quickly add in the vanilla, rose water, and food coloring(I used beet powder to keep it au natural), and then get that into either a container or mold to freeze and set. I use gelatin powder in my Turkish delight to expedite the setting process, but you can technically get away with using just cornstarch if you want to keep this recipe ovo-vegetarian/you just don’t want to use gelatin powder! The cookie itself, I used a pretty standard cookie recipe, with whipping your butter and sugar together, adding in an egg, then adding in your dry ingredients(flour, leavening agents, and specifically for this recipe, black cacao powder, which adds a fragrant chocolate flavor, but normal cocoa powder works too). When I was doing my first test run of this recipe, I used an almost 1 to 1 ratio of flour to sugar, but I found that the cookies spread way too much, and I also scooped them way too big. So for future Fred’s reference, the ideal weight of a cookie should be about 50 to 60 grams of dough per cookie. My first batch, I scooped 90 gram balls, and they were massive and kind of ugly. For the spreading, I dialed back the sugar, so it was almost a 2 to 1 ratio of flour to sugar(if you count the cocoa powder as part of the flour, it actually is a 2 to 1 ratio), and these cookies spread a lot more appropriately. Again, all notes for future Fred!

From my personal experience in developing this recipe, temperature is very key with making these. The Turkish delight on their own are somewhat soft and chewy, but mixing them into the cookie dough while the delights are at room temperature results in them basically disintegrating into the cookie dough. That’s what happened in my very first attempt at making these, and it was a shame, because I really wanted that gorgeous cross section of chocolate cookie with the Turkish delight embedded into them, and instead, I got a blob of chocolate dough with two to three Turkish delights sticking out of the top. So the lesson here is to freeze the Turkish delight solid first. This actually helps in two cases – the first is that the Turkish delight will hold its shape when being folded/mixed into the cookie dough, and the second is that the cookie dough won’t need to be chilled before being scooped. Since the Turkish delight are frozen solid, they will naturally cool the cookie dough while being incorporated into it. Chilling your cookie dough prior to baking it is important if you want a flatter, fudgier cookie. If you want your cookies to be crispy at the edges and fluffy in the middle, kind of like a muffin top, just don’t freeze the dough, scoop it straight from the mixer and bake them right away. If you want these cookies, which use the chilled Turkish delight, to have that fluffier texture, just let the scooped but unbaked dough sit at room temperature for 20 minutes before you bake them. Personally, I prefer the pre-chilled, flatter, fudgier cookie with flavors like chocolate, caramel, and coffee, but I like the ready-to-bake, light, fluffy cookies with flavors like corn, vanilla, or matcha. But it’s up to preference! I just like how adding the frozen Turkish delight really expedites the process for the pre-chilled method!

Makes 10 to 12 cookies:
For the Turkish delight:
1/3 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup water, in two parts
a pinch of salt
1 tbsp gelatin powder
1/2 cup cornstarch
1 tsp lemon juice
1/2 tsp rose water
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1 tsp beet powder or 1 dot red or pink gel food coloring

In a pot, whisk together the water, gelatin, cornstarch, and lemon juice. Whisk that mixture until it turns translucent. In another pot, heat up the sugar with one part water and the salt, and bring to a boil. Pour the boiling sugar syrup over the cornstarch mixture and whisk on medium heat until everything is brought up to a boil again. Then take the base off heat and whisk in the remaining ingredients. Pour into silicone bar molds and freeze solid. Cut into smaller cubes(optionally you can cut faucets on the edges or use a silicone gemstone mold instead), and return to the freezer until time to assemble the cookies.

For the chocolate cookie dough:
1 stick unsalted butter
3/4 cups granulated sugar
a pinch of salt
a pinch of cardamom
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 egg
1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1/4 cup black cacao powder
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/4 cup chopped dark chocolate
1/4 cup shelled and chopped pistachios
1/4 cup chopped ruby chocolate
Turkish delight, frozen solid

In a bowl, whip the butter, sugar, salt, cardamom, and vanilla until pale white in color and almost doubled in volume. Mix the egg into the butter, then fold in the dark chocolate, pistachios, ruby chocolate, and Turkish delight(reserve about 30 to 36 pieces, which you will press into the tops of your cookies). Lastly, fold in the flour, cocoa powder, baking powder, and baking soda to form your dough. Scoop roughly 60g balls of the dough(you should get about 11 to 12 balls in total), and space them out across two lined half sheet trays, keeping them about 2-3 inches apart. Press pistachio pieces and Turkish delights into the tops of the cookies. Bake at 350 degrees F for 14 minutes, rotating the trays halfway through the baking process to guarantee even browning and cooking. While the cookies are still warm, prepare to garnish the tops.

For garnish:
Dark chocolate
Ruby chocolate
Shelled pistachios
Flaky sea salt

Garnish the tops of the cookies with a combination of cubes of dark chocolate, ruby chocolate, pistachio pieces, and finish with sea salt.