These lavender shortbread cookies have a delicate, sweet fragrance of summer; are crisp, buttery and melt in your mouth. They are the perfect summer shortbread to serve with a cup of tea!
I know what you’re thinking; shortbread cookies are a holiday cookie, best served in the winter months with an assortment of nuts, chocolates and warm spiced drinks. But these buttery floral lavender shortbread cookies tell a different story. With a sweet lavender fragrance of summer and a buttery melt in your mouth crisp cookie; they are the perfect shortbread to change the myth of a holiday cookie. Don’t you agree?!
I love baking with lavender! Actually I love lavender in general, this beautiful plant is full of beauty and health properties.
A long time ago I dreamed of having a hobby lavender farm and it reminds me of a time when I used to live in South Africa in Clifton Beach. The streets and pathways are lined with bushes full of lavender and as I’d wait for the bus I’d rub my hands through the plants to let the oils of lavender be a natural perfume on my skin.
Lavender comes from the mint family so it’s not strange to be cooking and baking with lavender. It’s been a popular herb in the Mediterranean, Middle East and India where it was historically used for its scent in baths, clothes and hair as well as its medical properties. Today lavender can be found across Europe, Australia, New Zealand, North and South America. With its beautiful flowering buds, alluring sweet scent and extensive uses it’s no wonder this plant’s presence has spread across the world.
I have a few lavender plants spread in my backyard and at the cottage, but I struggle to get full beautiful blooming buds (with the lack of sunshine here in Canada). It’s okay though, I know just how special lavender is and keep a bag full of dried buds for my cooking and baking. You can find edible lavender buds at bulk food stores and organic specialty stores.
Baking Tip:
Make sure your butter isn’t too soft when you are ready to bake, you can put the tray of unbaked cookies into the fridge for 10 minutes or so to harden the butter again. When the butter is too soft it spreads out of the cookies as they are baking.
Happy Baking, I hope you love baking with lavender as much as I do. 🙂
Lavender Shortbread Cookies
These lavender shortbread cookies have a delicate, sweet fragrance of summer; are crisp, buttery and melt in your mouth. They are the perfect summer shortbread to serve with a cup of tea!
- Prep Time: 60 mins
- Cook Time: 30 mins
- Total Time: 1 hour 30 mins
- Yield: 36 cookies 1x
- Category: Cookies
- Cuisine: British
Ingredients
- 1 cup unsalted butter, at room temperature
- 1/2 cup icing sugar, sifted
- 2 teaspoons English Lavender Buds
- 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 1/2 cup cornstarch
- 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
Instructions
- In a mixer cream together butter and icing sugar. Add lavender, vanilla and salt, mix to combine.
- Add cornstarch and mix until smooth, add flour and mix to combine.
- Place dough in the fridge to harden, approx. 45 minutes.
- Preheat oven to 300˚F. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper.
- Roll dough into 1 tablespoon size balls and place on a cookie sheet approx. 1 inch apart. Using a fork, press down on the tops of each ball and drag the fork across. If the fork is sticking you can dip the fork into flour before you press into each cookie.
- Place in the oven and bake for 25-30 minutes or until the bottoms just start to brown.
Notes
Store in an airtight container for up to 2 weeks or freeze for a month.
You can change out the lavender and add your favourite flavours
ie. – rosemary, nuts, lemon, chocolate, etc
Nutrition
- Serving Size: 1
- Calories: 78
- Sugar: 1.7g
- Sodium: 52mg
- Fat: 5.2g
- Saturated Fat: 3.3g
- Unsaturated Fat: 0
- Trans Fat: 0
- Carbohydrates: 7.3g
- Fiber: 0.2g
- Protein: 0.6g
- Cholesterol: 14mg
Keywords: Lavender Cookies, Shortbread Cookies, Cookies, Lavender
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