Lavender Shortbread Cookies
Serves 24
15 mins prep
15 mins cook
15 mins Chill Time
45 mins total
These lavender shortbread cookies have a crisp, melt in your mouth texture with beautiful lavender and lemon flavor. They have a tangy lemon purple glaze with lavender buds. There's real dried lavender and lemon zest in the cookie dough for a gorgeous floral and fragrant flavor that isn't soapy at all. I love how thick these cookies are and they're so tender and crisp! They're the perfect easy whimsical cookies.
Shortbread cookie dough
Lavender lemon glaze
Shortbread cookie dough
Combine sugar and lavender flowers in a clean coffee grinder or a mortar and pestle, and blend until the flowers are in smaller pieces.
cup granulated sugar
tsp dried lavender flowers
Add the lavender sugar into a large bowl. Grate the lemon zest into the sugar. Rub the mixture with your fingers to break up the lemon zest and to release the fragrant lemon oils.
lemons
Add the butter and salt into the sugar mixture. Beat together until light and fluffy. Scrape down the bowl frequently to ensure even mixing.
cup salted butter
tsp sea salt
Then, sift the flour into the butter mixture. Gently mix until it becomes a dough.
cup all purpose flour
Dump the shortbread dough out onto a piece of parchment paper. Press it together into a cohesive ball. Sprinkle a bit of flour on top. Gently roll the dough into 1/2" thickness.
Cut out small 2" diameter flower shapes using a cookie cutter. Alternatively, use a knife to cut out square shaped cookies. Reroll the dough to cut out more cookies as needed.
Place the cookies onto a parchment lined baking sheet, leaving only a bit of space between the cookies because they don't spread much. Freeze for 15 minutes while the oven preheats to 340°F (170°C).
Bake the cookies for 15-17 minutes, until the bottoms are very lightly golden. Let them cool on the cookie sheet.
Lavender lemon glaze
Add the lemon juice, one tablespoon at a time, into the icing sugar in a bowl and whisk. Add enough lemon juice to make a glaze with a drizzling consistency. Optionally, add a touch of purple food coloring to tint it a lavender color. Then add dried lavender and stir.
cup powdered sugar
tbsp lemon juice
purple food coloring
tsp dried lavender flowers
Dip the tops of the cookies into the bowl with icing and let the excess icing fall back into the bowl. Place the cookies onto a parchment lined cookie sheet underneath. Enjoy once the glaze has dried up - about 15 minutes.