Lavender Shortbread Cookies
I’ve had dried lavender burning a hole in my pantry for ages, so I decided it was time to make something yummy. Once I started looking for ideas, I was amazed to discover that there’s an entire cookbook dedicated to lavender. This book is full of delicious sounding savory and sweet recipes, divided by seasons. I plan to start making my way through The Lavender Cookbook
Notes: I used a 2 inch round cookie cutter, which resulted in 12 cookies. But I think these would be adorable cut into 1 inch petit fours to serve at a holiday party! Like most shortbread cookies, these are not overly sweet and will pair wonderfully with tea or ice cream.
Ingredients:
- 3/4 cup unsalted butter, cubed and at room temperature
- 1/2 cup powdered sugar
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1 tsp vanilla
- 2 tsp dried lavender, chopped very finely
- 1 3/4 cup AP flour
Method:
- Chop the lavender or, even better, use a spice grinder to get it to a fine spice consistency.
- Cream the butter, sugar and salt in a stand mixer on medium-high until light and fluffy.
- Add the vanilla and lavender, then lower the speed and slowly add the flour until the dough is combined.
- Roll the dough tightly in plastic wrap and chill in the fridge for at least an hour, or until the butter firms up. You can speed up the process by using the freezer.
- Roll out the dough to around 1/2 inch thick. I rolled it in between 2 sheets of parchment paper, which isn’t essential but really helps avoid a mess and keep the dough smooth.
- Using a cookie cutter, cut dough into rounds and then place them on a sheet tray covered with parchment. Roll the excess scraps in a ball and repeat the process until you have used all the dough.
- Chill the dough for at least 30 minutes.
- Bake for 25-30 minutes for 350 degrees F, or until lightly golden on top. Allow to cool to room temperature.
Like this:
Trackbacks & Pingbacks
- Weekend Highlights – Noteworthy Articles by Fellow Bloggers – October 29/11 « Granny's Parlour
- Herbs Shine in Baked Goods
- Lavender Shortbread Cookies « Secret Foods
- Press this and Lavender Vegan Shortbread Cookies « Sabbath Sermons
- Press this and Lavender Vegan Shortbread Cookies | My Favourite Vegan Recipes
- Rose and Orange Blossom Shortbread Cookies | Savory Simple
Goodness that sounds so delicious and would go wonderfully with a nice big mug of tea…
These sound delightful – I am enjoying a glass of local white wine that has a tinge of rose in it. I imagine it paired with these gems – ah, yum!
The last food I ate with lavendar was a locally made lavendar chevre I bought this year at the farmer’s market – hmmm – that would be good too!
The book looks great as well.
Thanks!
These sound amazing! I love lavender as an ingredient. I’m going to have to put this on my priority “to try” list right up there with Earl Gray Shortbread cookies.
I’d love your recipe for Earl Gray shortbread cookies!
Ditto!!!
I have never cooked with lavender and wouldn’t even know where to begin. These sound delish!
i have also had some lavender sugar in my cabinet for far too long now!! these look great! my fav lavender recipe was a white cake with lavender sugar and meyer lemon buttercream!
Looks great!
I love both lavender and shortbread, so I’m sure together, they’re out of this world! Thanks for sharing this, I can’t wait to try it!
it is a wonderful herb to work with – but you cannot use too much or your food tastes like soap! I have to try these cookies :)
Love Lavender recipes. I have a jar of lavender honey in my cupboard just dying to be used.
Just today I was wondering if I could venture into cooking with lavender – and you’ve inspired me. I’m going to make the leap, this looks delicious.
Come on now those are just too pretty to eat. Oh who am I kidding? Slide that on over here.
I sometimes toy with the idea of opening a cookies only shop. These would definitely have to be on the menu.
There is a little boutique bakery that makes lavender shortbread and orange shortbread cookies in San Francisco. I used to walk by there on my way to work and overtime I’d end up 5 minutes late to work with a packet of three delicious cookies in my purse. They also put a tiny but of delicate flaked salt on the top which really brought out the flavor in the cookies. I’ll have to try these and get a sense of SF back in my Houston kitchen. Thanks so much for the again sharing a fantastic recipe and beautiful photos.
Would never have thought to add lavender to cookies! You learn something new everyday :)
I’ve only recently begun bringing lavender into my kitchen to put in something other than a vase. I’m loving it! After checking out the lavender cookbook, I couldn’t help myself. : / But first things first – I can hardly wait to taste your shortbread cookies! Beautiful!
You decided to forego the pistachios! Great recipe and beautiful shot :)
In the end, I left out the pistachio because I thought the cookie wouldn’t be as pretty. I still think it would have tasted delicious!
LOVE this!! This is perfect, I can’t wait to make these! I will feature it on my blog soon, Thank you for the recipe!
I have a bunch of dried lavender that I need to use also, so this will be the perfect recipe to use it in. Thank you for sharing!
What cute cookies! They look so tender, with a buttery crumb!
When I was a teenager, our family had an exchange student who brought me a gift of lavender pastilles. I have loved lavender ever since. These look beautiful (and the photo is lovely).
The cookies are beautiful! Fun recipe I’ll have to try :)
Tasty! Brings back memories of a decadent shortbread dessert I once met. Scotland. A pub. We ordered the Fresh Berries and Shortbread dessert. The dish: A huge, warm shortbread square topped with berries and surrounded by a sea of warm custard. One dish, placed in the middle of the table. Two spoons. Eat-your-way-to-the-middle delight.
Lavender is a wonderful seasoning for savory food as well as sweet. It can be used as flavoring for pasta or meat. One of my favorite pasta recipes is homemade ravioli stuffed with ricotta cheese served with “noisette butter” and fresh chopped lavender leaves. The recipe for Pork Rib Roast with Garlic and Lavender is listed in my recipe index if you would like to give it a try.
I have a real weakness for shortbread cookies. Thank you for sharing this enticing recipe. My family thanks you too. Wonderful!
When I was browsing through the cookbook, I saw a lot of intriguing savory recipes. Curried lavender hummus, lavender chestnut soup, grilled lavender-honey chicken… they all sound so interesting and delicious.
Beautiful food and beautiful photos. <3
Wow, the presentation of these Lavender Shortbread Cookies look amazing. And I just bet they taste just as delicious. Thanks for sharing this recipe
I made lavender tea cookies a couple of weeks ago that were just like this! They were delicious! I still have some of the dough in my freezer.
beautiful! I saw dried lavender at the bulk bin store recently and was tempted to buy some. This is a very cool way to put it to use. And shortbread cookies are my favorite…
My sister’s favorite ingredient is lavender, I am going to have to tuck this recipe away and perhaps try it out for a stocking stuffer for her this Christmas. Looks lovely.
I ADORE lavender! These cookies look amazing and your photos are incredible! Adding you to my blog roll!
I used to love the lavender cocktails my bartender friend made. Lavender is definitely an under used ingredient. Can I ask where you get it? Do you grow you own or do you buy it somewhere.
I found it in a spice shop while visiting family in Tucson. I’m not sure where else to get it but everything is usually for sale on the internet somewhere.
We just got some lavender to give my sister-in-law as a birthday gift! I’ll pass this recipe on to her, too!
This is my first experiment with lavender, and the cookies were delicious…..thank you.
I’m so happy you liked them!
looks great! your blog is good enough to eat :-D Thanks for swinging by my place and liking my post :-)
Thanks – I have lavender burning a hole in my pantry too! Time to try out this recipe.
These look great. I have dried culinary lavender on the shelf, so I might try these out. Thanks for stopping by my blog. I’m glad to discover yours and I’m enjoying exploring your posts. Your recipes are very enticing. I’m a Maryland girl myself, though I live in New England now, so I can relate to your geographic references.
They are so beautiful! I have a lavender plant on my roof terrace and am always looking for new recipes to try, my latest was lavender and lemon oat bars but this shortbread sounds to die for!!
I’d love to hear some of your other recipes!
What a beautiful photo. Thanks for this post. I also have a bunch of dried lavendar burning a hole in my pantry. I made lavendar shortbread once before, but you’ve reminded me it’s time to do it again. I’ll have to give your recipe a try.
I had no idea that one can eat lavender. I love the smell, I wonder how it tastes :O
It tastes good but you have to use it in small quantities. If you go overboard it definitely ventures into the realm of soapy bath product. But if you go light it tastes wonderful.
This sounds genius!! I never thought of using lavender with my shortbread recipe.
It is so nice to see recipes for using lavender in cooking. These cookies would be quite lovely glazed with a simple fondant made with lavender tea to moisten the 10x sugar. A soft lavender color infused with the essence is the result when using the tea.
To think about using lavender in other cooking, use it where you would use rosemary- in pork and lamb dishes too.
I adore this herb!
Wonderful tips!
I love lavender! Can’t wait to make these.
These look delicious… I have lots of lavender growing in my garden that I like to cook with, so I’ll add these to the list!
And your photos are stunning.
These look sooo delicious! I’m definitely going to try this recipe!
They are so pretty!!! :)
My m-i-l gave me a tin of dried lavender a few months ago and I’ve had no idea what to do with it. These cookies look like a good place to start, thanks!
Oh man…I just read your post yesterday, and then today my coworker gave me a huge bag of dried lavender from her garden. I know what I’m making this weekend…
Fantastic photography will have to dust of the camera now as feeling inspired! Thanks.
I think your photographs are really terrific. I love the compositions, and the softness of the light. And of course the recipes!
Gorgeous! My front yard is all culinary lavender. So much prettier and tasty than shrubs ;-)
What temperature do I need to set my oven at?
Oh my goodness, thank you! I can’t believe you’re the first person in 60 comments to notice my error. I’ve edited the recipe- it’s 350 degrees F. Thank you again!
This is definitely on my holiday season agenda! My go-to favorite shortbread is Heidi Swanson’s Pine Nut Rosemary Shortbread (http://www.101cookbooks.com/archives/pine-nut-rosemary-shortbread-recipe.html), but I had wildly mixed reactions to rosemary here in Portugal. I think lavender may be the ideal “gateway herb” for uninitiated taste buds :) Now I just have to find some lavender…and to find another use for my poor, neglected rosemary bush ;)
I’ve been wanting to do something sweet with lavender for a while. I usually add a bit to roasts. There is a lavender farm here on Maui, believe it or not. It’s beautiful to tour. I bought my culinary lavender from there.
Omg! These sound amazing- I do a cookie swap every year- that’s gotten shall we say slightly competitive. :) these just might be the secret ingredient I need! Going to try a test batch.
I just got my hands on some food-grade lavender too and have been wondering what to make with it first. I might just give these a try. And then maybe lavender pannacotta…. mmmm
Love the idea of baking with Lavender…. i’ve got to try this.
I’ve had a bottle of lavender in my pantry for several months and really didn’t know what to do with it. I would love to make these cookies but my husband is diabetic. Can I possible substitute the powdered sugar for Splenda? Would they turn out the same? Please let me know because they sound absolutely yummy!
I checked the Splenda website and this is what it says about creaming:
“When creaming butter or margarine with SPLENDA® Granulated Sweetener, your mixture will appear less smooth than it would with sugar, and may separate upon the addition of eggs. This is completely normal. Just continue following the recipe instructions.”
I can’t promise the flavor and consistency will be the same, but go ahead and try it.
Brilliant! Just what I was looking for to utilise the bag of lavender a foodie friend gave me recently as a challenge but neither of us could think of anything appetising to make with it. I will tell her to check out your blog. Thanks.
I dried lots of fireweed flowers with every intention of doing something with them. Your lavender shortbread recipe sounds perfect! Last time I used them I hand separated the petals. I think using a spice grinder is a terrific idea to use the whole flower. Thanks for the inspiration!
Barbra
donachyblog.wordpress.com
I have lavender for baking and have been wondering how to use it. Cookies, of course.
.
Ooh, these look amazing. I’ve always wanted to try lavender in my cooking – this looks like a great place to start!
I have never baked with lavender, but that looks like a lovely cookie. The photo is beautiful too!
These are beautiful! I need to buy some lavender and experiment! :)
Wow! This sounds so good! I have never used lavender in baking, but these sound so good!
As soon as I saw the reference to Lavender Shortcake Cookies from WordPress, I knew I had to follow the link! I have dried lavender in my spice cabinet and was looking for this kind of recipe. At one of our local farmers markets, a couple usually comes with all their own dried spices and herbs along with a few other items. One of those food items: bags of lemon lavender shortbread cookies. I’ve been looking for such a recipe. Bet I can “edit” your recipe to add some lemon flavoring to it. When I make them (could be a few weeks yet), I’ll refer folks to your blog for the original recipe! Can’t wait to try them.
I made these last weekend, and being a nervous first time lavender cook, I halved the quantity of lavender. The lavender flavour was only very subtle, as if you could smell it when you bit into them, if you know what I mean. Next time I make them I will definitely use the recommended amount of lavender!
As an added deco, I zig zagged some basic white icing (egg white and icing sugar with a dash of vanilla essence) over the top which looked very pretty.
Thanks for this recipe, I’m going to make them again and again!
I’m so glad you enjoyed them! I was hesitant to use it at first as well. I’m going to make them again soon but instead of lavender I’m going to do rose and orange blossom.
These sound delicious! I have some lavender dried from my summer garden and will try this out!
Recently served a similar lavender and rosemary shortbread alongside a buttermilk panna cotta with lemon curd…fabulous together! Love your idea of cutting them tiny…
I have a big sprawling planting of lavander outside my front door. We’ll be getting frost tonight so I’m going out right now while it’s still in the 40′s to nab a few hanks. These look sooo good. Do I have to wait til the lavander is dried?…Won’t be easy. Last Thanksgiving my sister made a similar shortbread with rosemary…I don’t want to say how many I ate. This year I’m bringing these. Thank you!
So easy even I could bake them!
Bring on the lavender recipes – always need more!!
Very cool photography – beautifully seen.
oh your blog is so much prettier than mine!
I love mixing a little bit of lavendar and peppermint together. Brings out the holidays and an unexpected, yet savory flavor. :)
MMMMMM,…What delightful looking cookies! Yummie! :)
These look delicious. I’ve never cooked with lavender before, but when I was in Seattle a few years ago lavender was in EVERYTHING it was deeeelicious. I might have to venture into the lavender world!
My copy of THE LAVENDER COOKBOOK came from Amazon today. Instead of making lavender shortbread, I took author Sharon Shipley’s advice and added dried lavender to a vanilla cupcake recipe from the MORE FROM MAGNOLIA: RECIPES FROM THE WORLD-FAMOUS BAKERY AND ALLYSA TOREY’S HOME KITCHEN. Then I wanted to frost them with the Marscapone Lavender Frosting from THE LAVENDER COOKBOOK, thinking I had all the ingredients. Wrong. So I substituted & added things and, voila, my own version. I’ll post it on my blog soon (but I’m behind in posting– pictures downloaded but it’s so time-consuming to pull it all together – could be a week or more before I get to this one!). Thanks for the lavender inspiration though!
I’m not so keen on lavender.. but this looks and sounds delicious!!!
You are way too nice about my blog! Your photos are so clear and stunning. Like this one. There is lavender growing in the neighbour’s garden – surely they won’t notice a few sprigs missing :P These cookies would be perfect for a pre-christmas gift. I presume they last alright in an airtight container.
Thank you so much! Shortbread cookies should stay for a good while, longer than regular cookies since there are no eggs.
Great idea!! Thanks :)
Love you blog.
Looking forward to trying some of your recipes!
Jodie
i love shortbread cookies and have seen lavender being used in dishes before, but this is the first time I saw shortbread cookies and lavender. Wonderful idea! Will get my hands on some dried lavender and try this one!
They look delicious, I have just ordered English Lavender seeds to grow for using in cakes and biscuits. I read somewhere the other day that English Lavender is the best to use in food as the others have to much camphor in them. I first came across Lavender scones and cakes in a novel about a detective and her friends coffe/garden shop. I would love to get my hands on the Lavender cookbook.
Cheers RosieG
Hi!
The recipe calls for fresh lavender.
Is it ok to use dried flowers instead?
Thanks and congrats, your blog is inspiring!
That was actually I typo which I just fixed. You can use dried lavender.
Thanks again for such a prompt reply.
Sure! I have the WordPress app for my phone and I check it obsessively after posting a new entry.
Aah, now I can find some use for the lavender sachet that lies hidden in the cupboard.. :)
I was looking for a lavender shortbread recipe this summer. My lavender plants went crazy this year! Now I can use the dried lavender to make these–they look and sound delicious!
Love the photo–beautiful! I’ve never had lavender in anything but I’m so intrigued! I’ll have to make these :)
Thanks for checking out my blog! Love yours!
These are absolutely stunning, I can’t take my eyes off them!
That pic looks amazing, if only I have more talent in the kitchen to create this beautiful recipe!
Love your blog!
These look amazing!!! I’m going to try these…with “Earth Balance” to make them vegan! Cheers :)
These look absolutely delicious and so pretty.
These would make great presents. I’ve never cooked with lavender but love the smell.
Oh my goodness, these sound incredible! I may have to whip some of these up soon! Yum!
Mary
http://theloveliestlittlethings.wordpress.com/
I have always wanted to make these! Thanks!!!
i love the smell of lavender. It helps put me to sleep, but I’m sure eating a dozen of these cookies would put me into a coma, too, hehe.
Yay I love your use of lavender (like mine)! I should get my hands on that cookbook!
Bea – u – ti – ful! The photogrpahs are amazing as well as the cookies of course!