Get baking…get running: Lavender Shortbreads
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Lavender Shortbread Cookies
I am a painfully dependable person. If I’m part of your life you can basically be guaranteed that:
- I will always be 5 minutes early, and at inopportune times will gently lecture about the importance of punctuality.
- I will always apologize for the state of my house, no matter how clean or dirty.
- I will always be up for late night snacks that include champagne (think nachos + champagne, mac and cheese + champagne, fish tacos + champagne)
- I will always send a Thank You card, although I must confess that I’ve translated the year-long window that applies to wedding presents to ALL thank you cards. (Don’t worry Topher…yours is in the mail!)
- And lastly, each fall, I will become overcome with the need to get baking and get running. Admittedly, the latter is largely a means to an end for the former since I truly HATE running, but hey, it works.
And so, this weekend, itching to get butter melting, and my Kitchen Aid whirring, I also decided to get my arse moving.
With a few half marathons under my belt and no love lost… my cousin Margot and I have decided to become elite 10-Kers. that’s right folks…watch out. The Malarkey girls are in action.
First stop…Lavender Shortbreads.
These are just as delicious as they sound and make lovely gifts or house-warming presents. Pending on your lavender lust, you can add more or less. Serve these with afternoon tea and be impressed with just how cultured and sophisticated you are.
Lavender Shortbread Cookies
Makes a dozen cookies, can easily be doubled or even quadrupled.
Ingredients
- 3/4 cup butter, softened
- 1/4 cup white sugar
- 3 1/2 tablespoons sifted confectioners’ sugar
- 1 tablespoon finely chopped fresh lavender (more or less, pending on taste)
- 1 tablespoon finely chopped fresh mint leaves
- 1 tsp orange zest
- 1-1/4 cups all-purpose flour, sifted
- 1/4 cup cornstarch
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- In a mixer, preferably your Kitchen Aid, combine the butter and sugars until light and fluffy. Mix in the lavender, mint, and orange zest, and gently blend. Add the flour, cornstarch, and salt, and mix until well blended and forming a dough. Give the dough a knead or two to fully assemble into a ball and wrap in plastic wrap. Flatten to about 2 inches thick. Refrigerate until firm, about 45 minutes.
- Preheat the oven to 325 degrees. On a lightly floured surface, roll the dough out to 1/4 inch thickness. Cut into desired shaped with cookies cutters, or a small, round glass. Place on ungreased cookie sheets.
- Bake for 18 to 20 minutes in the preheated oven, just until cookies begin to brown at the edges. Cool for a few minutes on the baking sheets then transfer to wire racks to cool completely.
Adapted from AllRecipes.com
Category Desserts, Uncategorized | Tags: cookies, Desserts, lavender shortbreads, mint, shortbread
I LOVE it! Well written, witty…and I love the Malarkey girls commitment!:) Get baking and get running!
Came to check out your recipe from the address you left in a comment on my blog. I’ll bet the addition of the mint and orange flavors are a real complement to the lavender. Not quite sure I’ve ever had a simple cookie surprise so many, except well maybe the rosemary shortbread. You do need to try that too; they are quite simply amazing.
I believe it! I had to bring all the cookies into work so I wouldn’t eat them all, though I can’t guarantee such self-control will be able to be executed on rosemary shortbreads. Oh dear.
I truly enjoy your writing style, but what made my smile from ear to ear.
The humor in the line “I will always be 5 minutes early, and at inopportune times will gently lecture about the importance of punctuality.”
Maddog must have missed that genetic code.
Ha! Yes…B and I have a few differing gene traits.
He is, however, a pretty good baker (don’t let the afro fool ya), so you might try and get him to make a batch of these. Lavender shortbread cookies…oh so manly.
I smiled reading your post. The lavender shortbread cookies are divine. A good cup of coffee and a couple of these cookies would be a wonderful combination.
[…] that I pretend I have less often than I do. I also find myself baking this time of year, and making profound resolutions about all the exercise I’ll do to offset […]