Lilac Shortbread Cookies

I’m so excited to share this sweet, sweet recipe with all of you! With only 4 ingredients, these lilac shortbread cookies are super simple to whip up, yet so impressive! They are buttery and crisp with a delicate floral flavour that melts in your mouth. The only catch, you have to have lilac sugar for the recipe! You can find my recipe to make your own sugar here.

This is my first of (I hope) many recipes using lilac sugar. At first I found the lilac sugar to be quite strong and earthy in scent once I opened my jar. But after opening the jar the aroma started to settle. I was worried that the sugar would be too strong and too floral but once I finished the recipe I found the real flavour came from the little bits and pieces of lilac flowers. Overall the lilac shortbread cookies were delicate and light.

Shortbread Baking Tips

When making shortbread you want to make sure your butter is cold before working and baking with it. Always refrigerate your dough for 20-30 minutes to harden the butter a little so it’s easier to work with, roll out and shape. You don’t want the butter so hard that it’s a stiff block, but just workable.

If your butter has softened in the dough while shaping, place the cookie sheet of unbaked cookies into the fridge for 10 minutes to harden the butter again. Then bake as you normally would. If the butter in the cookies are too soft and placed in the oven to bake, your shortbread cookies will spread out and you’ll lose the shape and butter as they are baking.

Gifting

Shortbread cookies make a sweet gift as they last a very long time, especially these lilac shortbread cookies. They are the perfect bridal shower, baby shower or hostess gift to impress a crowd. Most people don’t even know that lilacs are edible, you’ll be gifting something unique. You can box or bag them with a simple bouquet of flowers, a bottle of wine, or a box of tea.

I hope you love this recipe as much as I do.

Happy baking.

Lilac Shortbread Cookies

Print Recipe

★★★★★

5 from 1 reviews

These lilac shortbread cookies are delicate, buttery and have a slight floral flavour. They are perfect with tea, for bridal and baby showers, or simply to impress friends. With only 4 ingredients, they are simple and easy to whip up as long as you have lilac sugar ready to go.

• Author: Alie Romano
• Prep Time: 30 mins
• Cook Time: 22 mins
• Total Time: 52 mins
• Yield: 2 dozen 1x
• Category: Cookies
• Cuisine: British

Ingredients

Units USM Scale 1x2x3x

• 1/2 cup (113g) unsalted butter, at room temperature
• 1/4 cup lilac sugar (plus extra to sprinkle on top of cookies)
• 1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
• 1 cup all-purpose flour

Instructions

1. Cream butter and lilac sugar together in a stand mixer until light and fluffy. Scrape down the sides of the bowl as needed. Add vanilla extract.
2. Add flour and mix to combine.
3. Shape dough into a disc, wrap in plastic and refrigerate for 20 minutes. This step is very important to firm up the butter.
4. Meanwhile line a baking sheet with parchment paper and preheat your oven to 300˚F.
5. On a lightly floured work surface, roll dough out to about 1/4 inch thick.
6. Using a round cookie cutter (approx. 2 inch in diameter) cut cookies out and place on a prepared cookie sheet approx. 2 inches apart. Use up all the dough. Sprinkle the tops of each cookie with extra lilac sugar.
7. Bake for approx. 18 – 22 minutes or until bottoms are starting to brown.

Notes

The lilac flowers are where you get most of the soft delicate flavour, so make sure you have pressed flowers from your sugar in the cookies, do not remove them.

If your lilac sugar has clumped up, pour it out of the jar and break up the clumps. It will smell strong and earthy, but not to worry the taste is delicate and lovely.

You can easily double this recipe.

Nutrition

• Serving Size: 1 cookie
• Calories: 61
• Sugar: 2.1g
• Sodium: 27mg
• Fat: 3.9g
• Saturated Fat: 2.4g
• Unsaturated Fat: 0
• Trans Fat: 0
• Carbohydrates: 6.1g
• Fiber: 0.1g
• Protein: 0.6g
• Cholesterol: 10mg

Keywords: Shortbread, Lilac, Cookies, Spring

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