Wednesday, January 6, 2010

Christmas Cookies Part 2- Lavender Lemon Shortbread

Lemon and lavender go really well together. Lavender makes the taste of the lemon even more bright and fresh that lemon typically is. The first time I've had the combo was when one of my classmate turned friend made lemon lavender scones for a bake fest we had at our other classmate turned friend's house. They were delicious and the lavender did not make the scones taste like flowers like I thought it would!
The recipe I used was from Leite's Culinaria and it was actually for Lavender Fleur de Sel shortbread. I subbed the Fleur de Sel for lemon b/c I didn't have any on me and I wasn't brave enough to head out to William Sonoma in the mall and get any two days before xmas. :)
Recipe:
1 cup all purpose flour
1/2 tsp fine sea salt
1/3 cup granulated sugar
2 tsp chopped dried lavender blossoms
1/2 cup unsalted butter, softened
1 tsp pure vanilla extract
2 tsp grated lemon rind

Sift the flour and fine sea salt together in a small bowl.

Combine the sugar, lavender and grated lemon rind in the bowl of a stand mixer fitted w/ a paddle attachment. Mix for 15-20 seconds to combine. Add the butter and mix until combined. Mix in the vanilla and squeeze the juice from half the lemon in (careful to keep the seeds out!). Add the flour mixture to the butter mixture and mix on low until it forms a soft dough.

Shape the dough into a disk, wrap tightly in plastic and refridgerate for 20-30 min.

Line a baking sheet with parchment paper or foil. Roll the dough out to 1/4 inch thickness and cut it into shapes w/ your knife or cookie cutter. Place the shapes on the baking sheet and place the baking sheet in the freezer for 15 min, until the dough is stiff.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F while the cookies are in the freezer.

Bake the cookies for 12-15 mins or until the edges are a golden brown. Let them cool for 15 min on the sheet, then transfer them to a wire rack to cool completely.

These cookies keep for up to 5 days in an airtight container.

They were honestly delicious. My mother isn't one for "crazy things" like this and she thought they were very refreshing, different, but refreshing. My yiayia loved them. I'd like to try them w/ the Fleur de Sel someday. I have a feeling they'd be delicious that way too!

1 comment:

Conor @ HoldtheBeef said...

Ahh, interesting! I was just talking about baking with lavender an hour ago, funnily enough. I'm really interested to find out what it tastes like.. these look like they would taste damn good :)