Like all dutiful sablés, or shortbread cookies, ours adhere to strict standards: flour, butter, sugar, salt. Milled buckwheat being what it is, however, which is to say almost tremulous in its delicacy, a few ounces of all-purpose flour come in handy, providing structure and shape. And a trace of fine yellow cornmeal opens up the crumb to an imperceptibly granular filigree. Beyond its striking flavors of deep earth and toasted chestnuts—heightened here with a shimmer of orange flower water-milled buckwheat is also stunningly beautiful, with dark bran flecks against a dusky mauve hue. The overall effect of these cookies is one of exceptionally light, buttery crispness and floral notes under a deep veil of earth.

Equipment Mise en Place
For this recipe, you will need a mixing bowl, a whisk, and a stand mixer with paddle attachment (or a food processor in lieu of these items), a rubber spatula, 2 baking sheets lined with parchment paper, a small star pastry tip for decoration, a small stemmed glass with a 2-inch-diameter base for pressing the raw cookies, a metal spatula, and a wire cooling rack.

Ingredients
1 cup (5.2 ounces) Anson Mills Rustic Aromatic Buckwheat Flour
3/4 cup (3.75 ounces) unbleached all-purpose flour
1/4 cup (1.25 ounces) Anson Mills Fine Yellow Cornmeal
1/2 teaspoon fine sea salt
16 tablespoons (8 ounces) unsalted butter, room temperature
9 tablespoons (1/2 cup plus 1 tablespoon) extra-fine granulated sugar for the recipe, plus additional for rolling the raw cookies
2 teaspoons orange flower water

Directions
1. Adjust an oven rack to the middle position and heat the oven to 400 degrees. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper. Turn both flours, the cornmeal, and the salt into a mixing bowl and whisk to combine.

2. If using a stand mixer: Beat the butter in the bowl of a stand mixer with the paddle attachment until light and fluffy, about 45 seconds. Scrape down the bowl. Add the sugar and beat on medium speed until the mixture is light and aerated, pausing once to scrape down the bowl, about 1 minute. Add the orange flower water. With the mixer running on low speed, add the dry ingredients to the batter. Detach the bowl from the mixer and scrape it down. The dough will be soft and creamy. If using a food processor: Cut the butter into pieces. Turn the dry ingredients, including the sugar, into the workbowl and process briefly to combine. Add the butter to the workbowl and pulse until the dough comes together, about 10 1-second pulses. Add the orange flower water and pulse briefly to combine. Turn the dough into a medium mixing bowl.

3. To shape the cookies: Roll bits of dough—about 2 teaspoons, or, if you have a kitchen scale, 0.3 ounces— lightly between your palms to form balls. Roll each ball gently in sugar and place the cookies 2 inches apart on 2 baking sheets lined with parchment paper. Using the base of a small glass, flatten the balls evenly into 2-inch disks about 1/8 inch thick. Press a star tip into the center of each cookie for decoration. Bake the cookies, one sheet pan at a time, until golden brown on the edges and bottoms, about 12 minutes, rotating the pan from front to back halfway through the baking time. Slide the parchment sheet onto a rack and cool 15 minutes.

Makes about sixty 2 1/2-inch cookies