Delicate Lavender Shortbread Cookies

I once shared an unconventional cookie recipe with rosemary, orange and chocolate, so I hope it is no surprise when I offer yet another unusual cookie recipe to your tables. This time I have a delicate lavender shortbread that is super easy to do. Now if you are from France, this is probably old news to you. The French have incorporated lavender into their foods beautifully, but some places have yet to discover the magic of lavender in the kitchen. Lavender is actually a member of the mint family, along with rosemary, sage, catnip and other more "common" mints such as spearmint. It is, much to the surprise of some, completely edible! It actually has a number of scrumptious flavour combinations to play with as well. You do however need to make sure get hold of culinary lavender! Although all lavender is edible you don't want a plant grown with nasty, dangerous pesticides and chemicals. Either purchase a good organic Lavandula angustifolia (English lavender has a better flavour) or grow your own, they are very easy plants to grow!

Lavender is great with citrus, vanilla, chocolate, rosemary, rose, chili and many spices. It is actually a very flexible ingredient that can be put to good use in baking, with meats (especially chicken and lamb) and is even good with goat cheese.
Along with all this, it grows into a beautiful plant that is good for attracting bees and other pollinating insects, which is always a great thing! Bees who feed on the lavender nectar make the most amazingly tasty honey too! So naturally I just had to grow some in the herb garden, and it has certainly made many bees and butterflies happy this year. As soon as the flowers were blooming I cut a few stalks with full lilac heads for drying. I set some aside for baking but also used it for making a natural perfume spray and also used some to hang in my wardrobe. But enough of my rambling, here is the recipe!!

Ingredients

• 2 cups organic all purpose flour
• 1 cup butter, room temperature
• ½ cup sugar
• 2 tablespoons dried lavender buds (or 4 tablespoons fresh lavender buds)
• 1 cup confectioners sugar, and a little water
• ½ a lemon
• extra lavender buds for decoration (optional)

Method:

First you need to infuse your sugar with the lavender buds to create a heavenly lavender sugar. This is simple, just get your food processor or blender and grind them together until the lavender buds have broken down into the sugar. This is my favourite step because you will be greeted with a strong aroma of sweet floral lavender, heavenly!! (You can use lavender sugar in many recipes, so its worth doing this same step to make a large containers worth to keep in your kitchen for future uses next to your regular sugar.)
Next beat together your captivating lavender sugar infusion with the butter until smooth and creamy. You can do this by hand or with any standard mixer. Add the flour little by little and keep mixing to insure a smooth consistency. Roll the dough into a round and flatten slightly, wrap in cling film / plastic wrap and leave in the refrigerator for 30 minutes.
Remove from the fridge and roll out the dough on a well floured surface. Get your desired cookie cutter and cut the cookies and place them on a baking pan lined with parchment paper. Chill in the refrigerator for another 30 minutes before baking.  Bake at 300 degrees for roughly 30 minutes and leave to cool on a wire rack.
While your cookies are cooling, you can mix the confectioners sugar with the juice of half a lemon and a little water to form a thin spread. When the cookies are cool add a small dollop of the lemon spread in the middle of each cookie and smooth down with the back of a spoon. Add your lavender buds in the middle to decorate.
Leave the cookies for another 15 minutes to set the decoration. Enjoy!

Notes:

"If you don't have a blender you can infuse the sugar and lavender with a mortar and pestle"