Lavender Shortbread
This tender, melt-in-your mouth lavender shortbread is super easy to make and has a lovely mild floral flavor. It uses just a few simple ingredients and makes for a wonderful snack with tea or coffee or a sweet end to a meal.
Many people think that lavender in desserts has to taste like dish soap; this couldn’t be farther from true here. It’s all about getting the quantity right – you want just enough to taste the lavender, but not so much that it is overpowering.
Ingredients
This recipes uses powdered sugar instead of granulated sugar. The powdered sugar gives the cookies a tender, sandy texture.
As the butter itself provides a lot of the flavor in shortbread cookies, use a butter that you love. I’ve even made these with goat butter and love the subtle tang that it gives the cookies.
Lavender, of course, is a key ingredient here. You can often find culinary lavender at the grocery store. If not, you can always purchase it online. If the lavender is in large pieces, use a mortar and pestle or a spice grinder to grind it finely.
The quantity of lavender that I suggest in this recipe is just enough to taste it but not enough to be overpowering. Some of my tasters actually wanted even more. If you are a cookie dough eater, this would be a great recipe to taste a bite of before rolling the dough log and chilling. If you want more lavender, you can add it at that point. Remember to add a little at a time. You can always add more, but once you’ve added too much, there is no going back!
Instructions
Start by creaming butter and powdered sugar until light and fluffy.
Mix in the ground lavender, salt and vanilla extract.
Add the flour a little bit at a time, mixing until just combined. (Here’s the part where I said you might want to taste the dough to see if you want to add a touch more lavender or if you are happy with it as is.)
Transfer the dough to a piece of parchment and roll it up tightly into a log. To make sure the log is packed tightly, once I form the log and do a roll or two with parchment paper, I place a ruler flush against the log and then pull the parchment paper out at the bottom of the log. For reference, my log ends up being about 7.5 inches (19 cm) long.
Put the whole log in the fridge for at least an hour. You can also leave it there overnight.
After it’s chilled, slice the log into 1/4″ discs.
Roll the edges of the discs in sanding sugar.
Bake at 300 F for 15 minutes or until they just start to brown.
Cool on a cooling rack.
Expert Tips and FAQs
This is a great make-ahead recipe. You can make the dough a day in advance and then take it out when you are ready to slice and bake. You can also freeze the dough log and defrost it when you are ready to bake.
The cookies themselves last for weeks at room temperature, ship easily, and can also be frozen.
If lavender just isn’t your thing, you can leave it out entirely. This is still a wonderful cookie even without it.
Yes! The slice-and-bake version I show here is definitely the easiest way to make these cookies, but if you want to make other shapes, you can roll the dough out to 1/4u0022 thick after it chills and then use your favorite cookie cutters.
Other Easy Cookie Recipes
- Cinnamon sugar cookies
- Chocolate chip banana cookies
- Simple honey cookies
- Simple speculoos cookies (Copycat Biscoff)
- Coffee cookies
Lavender Shortbread
Ingredients
- 1/2 cup unsalted butter room temperature
- 1/4 cup powdered sugar
- 1 1/2 teaspoons ground lavender If it isn’t finely ground, grind with a mortar and pestle or a spice grinder.
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1 cup all-purpose flour
- 1/4 cup sanding sugar for decorating
Instructions
- In a medium-sized mixing bowl, cream butter and powdered sugar with an electric mixer until light and fluffy.
- Mix in the ground lavender, salt, and vanilla extract until fully combined.
- Add the flour a little bit at a time, mixing until just combined. (If you know you are a big lavender fan, you may want to taste the dough at this point to see if you'd like to add a touch more lavender. This recipe has just a hint of lavender for those less comfortable with the taste.)
- Transfer the dough to a piece of parchment and roll it up tightly into a log. To make sure the log is packed tightly, once you form the log and do a roll or two with the parchment, place a ruler flush against the parchment touching the log and then pull the parchment paper out at the bottom of the log. For reference, my log ends up being about 7.5 inches long.
- Refrigerate the whole log for at least an hour. You can also leave it there overnight.
- When ready to bake, preheat the oven to 300 F.
- Slice the log into 1/4" discs and roll the edges of the discs in sanding sugar.
- Bake for 15 minutes or until the cookies just start to brown.
- Cool on a cooling rack.
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